


Indescribable

by Zeigarnik



Category: Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
Genre: Bank Robbery, Crime, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-02-07 19:57:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 27,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12848415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeigarnik/pseuds/Zeigarnik
Summary: Criminals don't always like who they're forced to work with, but learning to get along anyway can be the difference between life and death...





	1. Prologue

“Mole not like this, something feels off…”

  
  


It was easy to become seduced by the thrills and excitement that living the life of a criminal could offer. The potential payout if you did your job properly, the promise of a lavish life and anything you could ever want at your fingertips, if you could make it out of any given job alive anyway. It was that very same allure that had won Mole over in the end, prompting him to take his uncle’s rather unique offer to help him with a very special job when he had first met up with him after returning to France. They were family, and even if they hadn’t seen each other since Mole was a small child, Gentleman had quickly assured him that in this line of work, blood was thicker than water. They were the only ones they could really trust, and they needed to have each other’s back.

  
  


So Mole had agreed, trusting his uncle’s judgment and skills on such a dangerous subject. One successful heist later, and Mole swore he would never come down from the high of stealing. He may have been simply making a bit of cash on the side as Gentleman worked towards his own private ends, but Mole was being taken care of in a country he wasn’t familiar with, and at his uncle’s side he felt more welcomed and at home than he ever had with his own father. One heist quickly turned to two, then three, and before long the thought of simply settling down and calling it quits while he was ahead was the farthest thing from his mind. Mole was young, and Gentleman was showing him how to take the very world into the palm of his hand and manipulate it for himself.

  
  


Of course, in such a dangerous line of work, Mole quickly developed a rather healthy sense of cynicism and caution as well. Barging into any given situation without a bit of forethought could land you in jail, or a morgue, very quickly.

  
  


“There’s nothing for you to worry about. We’re simply going to talk to him.” Gentleman said, glancing to his side where Mole was sat leaned against the passenger side door of his car, staring out the window and looking at the street numbers as they passed by. Occasionally Mole would look down at the little slip of paper with an address scrawled onto it that Gentleman had given him before they left, just waiting for the numbers to match up.

  
  


“Hacker knows too much.” Mole muttered. “Dirty criminals always have nasty trick or two…”

  
  


“Oh, I’ve seen his work, but that’s exactly why he and I need to have a little chat.” Gentleman said, and when Mole didn’t respond, he continued on. “…There are many ways to handle a situation like this. If for whatever reason he doesn’t feel like playing nice… well, then there’s no reason that we should feel the need to either.” He said, as calm as he ever was, but it did nothing to ease Mole’s nerves.

  
  


“Gentleman said Hacker’s name is what?” Mole asked, finally looking over.

  
  


“I don’t have his name, but I’m afraid he has ours, and that alone is certainly something worth looking into, don’t you think?” Gentleman asked.

  
  


“Mole will make Hacker afraid to talk.” Mole said, his voice low and bitter at the idea of his identity getting out there because some street punk who stuck his nose in the wrong place decided to put it out there for everyone to see.

  
  


“If it comes to that, I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job, _Mon Neveu_. I truly hope it doesn’t though…” Gentleman said, turning his full attention back to the road as his words trailed off.

  
  


Mole couldn’t help the frown that spread across his lips at Gentleman’s words, because nothing about what he had just said made Mole very happy. It put him on edge, made him worry for how this little confrontation was going to go. It was hardly the first time he had come along with Gentleman to track down and intimidate, or even eliminate, a rival that had been causing trouble for them and it was never fun. This was, however, was the first time that either of them had dealt with someone who was not only able to dig up an absurd amount of information on both their work and their personal lives, but for some reason had contacted them and shown them proof of their findings. Mole suspected that it had simply been for fun, to rub it in their faces before turning it over to the highest bidder, but Gentleman seemed to think otherwise.

  
  


Of course while their methods were far from perfect, they had their own ways of tracking their little nuisance down. It had been a few weeks of struggling to find out anything and everything about this Hacker that they could, which had been difficult considering that he damn near seemed to cover his tracker better than even Gentleman did, and nobody seemed to have heard of him before. In the end it had taken a few calls overseas to a connection that Gentleman had made during his travels to get any hints as to where their target might have been hiding away, and slowly but surely they narrowed it down to a single address.

  
  


Their travels brought them to one of the lower end hotels in the city. Still a lovely place to stay, but not quite as extravagant as some of the other choices that the richest folk seemed to flock to. The room that the Hacker had been staying in had been repeatedly rented out by one person for the past few months, camping out there and making regular payments when necessary. Almost half a year of living out of a hotel, but as long as the cash kept flowing in, nobody who worked there was going to question why the Hacker hadn’t vacate and found somewhere else to stay. Gentleman pulled the car up and parked just outside the building before stepping out and grabbing his cane from between the seats.

  
  


“I have to assume that he has a reason hiding out here for so long…” Gentleman mused as Mole climbed out of the car as well, grabbing his Freedom Spoon from the back seat. “I’d be surprised if he’s not already in trouble with the law…”

  
  


“More trouble than he’s worth…” Mole grumbled, and Gentleman let out a bit of a laugh as he came around the side of the car, clapping his hand on Mole’s back as they started for the front door of the hotel.

  
  


“I’ve never seen you this sour about a job like this.” Gentleman said.

  
  


“Mole knows what Gentleman is planning” Mole said, staring down at Gentleman with an accusatory look on his face. “Mole doesn’t like it…”

  
  


“I can assure you that you do not, but even so, what would it matter? I’ve been in similar situations before, and I know how to handle them…” Gentleman said, and he his hand slipped away from Mole’s back as he stepped into the building. “Just do as I ask and everything will work out just fine.”

  
  


Mole’s expression turned to one of pure irritation, and his eyes followed Gentleman, but if his uncle noticed he showed no signs about it. It wasn’t worth fighting with him over though, so Mole just let out a heavy sigh through his nose and adjusted his hold on Freedom Spoon before following him through the door. It seemed blindingly bright inside the front lobby after stepping in from the dark dusk outside, and he reached up to rub at his eyes while Gentleman spoke with the doorman that was stood behind the front desk, asking for directions to the room number that they were looking for. Just a visit, Gentleman had assured, they wouldn’t be staying long. It was better for Mole to just sit back and let him do all the talking, because Gentleman had a unique way with words that could get him into many places where he didn’t belong, and convince people to dismiss things that normally would have caused great alarm in normal situations. Such as the fact that Mole had a large sledgehammer slung over his shoulder. By the time Gentleman was finished talking up the doorman, Mole was able to walk right by and towards the elevator without once having to make up an excuse as to why he was bringing the tool with him.

  
  


The ride up to he third floor where the Hacker was staying was far to short, and as they went up Mole tightened his grip around the handle of his hammer, feeling a great sense of unease settle over him. Something in the back of his head was nagging at him, making him feel as though he was being watched, and it made him feel a little sick. He couldn’t help but throw a quick look around the elevator as if he would spot a camera placed by their target. He saw nothing of the sort though.

  
  


The elevator doors opened with a ding, and the two of them stepped out. Gentleman made his way down the hall towards the room number they had written down on the paper along with the address, and he rapped his knuckles against the door as Mole followed closely behind him. They stood in silence, waiting for any sign that someone was home, and the seconds ticked by with no response. After about a minute of waiting with nothing from the other side of the door, Gentleman knocked again, a little louder this time. There was a peep hole on the door, and Mole couldn’t help but wonder if the Hacker wasn’t just staring at them through it, refusing to let them in.

  
  


Gentleman gave it another minute before he knocked again, and this time when there was no answer, he looked towards Mole and took a step back.

  
  


“I trust you can get us inside?” He asked.

  
  


“Easy.” Mole said, and he straightened his back just a bit as he stood in front of the door. He didn’t even need Freedom Spoon for this. Instead he just leaned back a little, and with as much force as he could muster, he kicked the door right by the doorknob. It took one more try after that, but the door went swinging open with the force of his kick, hitting the door stopper placed on the wall behind it.

  
  


He stepped in before Gentleman, ready to act as a shield for him should any attacks come their way, but when he had a look around Mole didn’t see anyone in the room. It was quite obvious they weren’t alone in there though, just judging from the open bag of chips and running laptop left on the hotel bed. He did take a quick glance at the screen, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of anything he could see on it.

  
  


Gentleman stepped in after Mole, and he had a look around as well. The room itself looked surprisingly clean, certainly not like someone had been living in it for months now. It was a small place, of course meant for just one person, so it left very few places to hide, and the first place Gentleman’s eyes wandered towards was the closed bathroom door. He looked over to Mole, who seemed to have the same idea as him, and he nodded his head towards it as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

  
  


Mole readied his hammer without a sound and stepped towards the bathroom door. He had just reached out and tried the handle, twisting it both ways only to find that it was locked, before an angry shout came from beyond it.

  
  


“ _ **gtfo**_ ” Hacker yelled, and a sudden loud bang on the door from the other side made Mole jump back a little in surprise. Then he narrowed his eyes at the door in confusion.

  
  


“…What?” He asked, before looking back towards his uncle for an answer to his confusion, before the man on the other side of the door called out once again.

  
  


“illshootgetout”

  
  


Most of the time when someone said that they were going to shoot you if you came any closer to them, it was best to air on the side of caution and assume they were telling the truth. Getting shot wasn’t particularly high up on Mole’s to-do list. Gentleman simply nodded towards the door once more though, so Mole sigh and steeled himself, before hefting his hammer up, and with a hard swing towards the door, the wood all but splintered under the force of it. A rather undignified squawk came from Hacker, and Mole could hear him scrambling around in the bathroom, but he had gone and trapped himself for them rather well.

  
  


“Unless he wants to jump out of a third floor window, he’s not going anywhere. Get in there and disarm him.” Gentleman ordered, and Mole gave a small nod.

  
  


It only took a few more swings before the door was turned to little more than rubble before Mole, and he stepped forward, kicking the broken bits of wood aside with his boots. A gunshot did indeed go off almost as soon as he passed the threshold into the bathroom though, and it was close enough to hitting Mole that he could nearly feel the force of it on his face, but the bullet missed all the same and ended up embedding a hold into the porcelain wall behind him. What actually hurt was just how loud it was, and how the sound of a gun discharging echoed off the walls around them. There was a sharp pain in his ears, and a ringing shortly after that left him holding his head for a moment. Hacker seemed to be in no better condition when Mole did finally look up at him though, seeing as he had his eyes squeezed shut tightly, and the palms of his hands pressed tightly over his ears, the pistol barely hanging from one of his fingers as he shook his head and curled in on himself in the corner of the room.

  
  


Before Mole had even really taken a moment to compose himself, he stumbled towards Hacker, hands outstretched to grab him and yank him closer. Hacker’s eyes opened as soon as he felt hands on him, and despite the fact that his head was clearly still swimming and ears ringing painfully loud, he gripped the gun tight in his hand once again and swung the butt of it at Mole. It struck him in the side of his temple, and knocked his hardhat right off the top of his head. A second blow landed in nearly the same spot only a second later, and it was clear that any pain Hacker had been feeling was forgotten as anger and panic set in once again.

  
  


“getoutgetout” Hacker yelled, and when he swung the pistol at Mole again, Mole reached up and grabbed his wrist tight and stopped him in mid swing.

  
  


Hacker was shoved back against the wall again, his wrist being slammed and pinned there beside his head as Mole loomed over him, eyes filled with fury as blood began to creep down the side of his head from a fresh cut that one of the strikes from the pistol had left behind. It was easy for Mole to grab the gun and wrench it upward from Hacker’s grasp, despite how the smaller man reached up and clawed at Mole’s hand and wrist, Hacker just wasn’t as strong as he was. He was however, able to work with the element of surprise and before Mole could get a good grip on it and turn the gun on him in return, Hacker kicked his foot out, knocking the weapon right out of Mole’s hand and sent it skidding along the bathroom floor until it crashed against the bathtub.

  
  


Mole seemed surprised, and while his grip on Hacker’s wrist stayed firmly in place, he looked behind him to see that the gun was out of his reach. In his mind though, it was better than neither of them have the gun rather than the gun be in the hand of the man he was fighting. Mole could hold his own in a fight without a weapon, certainly against someone of Hacker’s size.

  
  


When Mole turned back around to face Hacker again though, Hacker kicked his bare foot out again to hit Mole hard in the face, his heel colliding with Mole’s nose, and for a moment all Mole could register was pain. His eyes watered up almost immediately, and he was pretty sure he had felt his nose crack under Hacker’s foot. Before he could react, he was kicked again, twice in kick succession with about as much force as Hacker could muster. Once more hitting his nose to send an agonizing jolt of pain through Mole, and another hitting Mole right in the mouth.

  
  


Hacker had pulled his foot back once again to undoubtedly try to kick Mole again while he was dazed, but before he could, Mole balled his fist and reeled it back to hit him in the face.

  
  


Mole had once been told that his punches felt like getting hit with a truck at full force, and Hacker sure as hell looked like he had even after getting socked only once by Mole. He had fallen to the side, knocked over by the force of the blow, and with wide eyes he gave a startled gasp, blood sputtering from his lips as he sucked down air and tried to comprehend what had just happened and how he had ended up sprawled out on the floor like this. Hacker focused in on the blood dripping down from his busted upper lip as it dotted the floor beneath him, before his eyes slowly turned towards the gun across the room.

  
  


In the moment of silence that had spread over the bathroom as Hacker slowly collected himself, Mole took the time to sit back and reach up and gingerly wipe at his own nose with the back of his hand. He was sick of feeling his own blood creep down from one of his nostrils, and when he pulled his hand back to look at it, there was quite a bit more there than he had thought there would be. His attention was pulled from his hand back to Hacker when the man started shifting around, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, albeit rather shakily. Mole wasn’t expecting much more resistance from him, not with the state he seemed to be in, so he reached down towards him to try and get a good hold on him. Hacker reacted rather instinctively and shoved at Mole’s hand, hissing before he quickly got his feet under him, and he lurched himself forward towards the gun, arm outstretched to snatch it up.

  
  


Before Hacker could reach it though, the leg of his sweat pants snagged on something, and just quickly as he had regained his footing, he seemed to lose it again. With a surprised yelp he fell forward, his arms still outstretched, but they did nothing to help him as he went crashing into the bathtub. There was a sharp pain in his wrist for a moment, but it was dulled in comparison to the pain he felt as his face smashed against the edge of the tub at full force, before the world seemed fade in and out, the bathroom spinning around him as he ended up sprawled out on the floor once more.

  
  


Mole had watched as Hacker had fallen face first into cold hard porcelain, his fingers still hooked into the fabric of Hacker’s sweatpants after he had made a mad grab at him, and he winced as he saw dark blood splatter on to what had once been a stark white tub. The man continued to writhe in pain for a moment, slowly rolling onto his back and groaning as Mole got a good look at his busted face, but there was little time for Mole to feel any remorse. He got to his feet and wiped at his nose once more before he reached down and grabbed Hacker by the front of his hoodie, and he dragged him towards the main living area where Gentleman awaited him to see what had become of their scuffle.

  
  


“Mole said, more trouble than he’s worth…” Mole grunted, shooting a rather nasty look at Gentleman before he yanked on Hacker a bit, all but lifting him off the ground entirely as Hacker slowly began to squirm again.

  
  


“heyhey _hey_ ” Hacker said, his voice strained and words slurred just a little more than they normally seemed to be, his voice only raising slightly as his body left the ground entirely. Blood ran down the majority of his face from where the skin had begun to split open on his forehead, and both his eyes were already looking horribly bruised. As he squirmed there was a small attempt by him to try and slip out of his hoodie and escape, but he was rather rudely dropped at Gentleman’s feet before he could manage to wriggle his way out of it.

  
  


Gentleman was quiet, just idly tapping his cane against his shoe as he thought, looking Hacker up and down before he let out a rather tired sigh. “Perhaps you’re right, Mole. However, if you look over even the smallest of threats you will come to regret it in time.” He said.

  
  


“Gentleman want Mole to dispose of threat?” Mole asked, hefting up his Freedom Spoon hand for show.

  
  


“No, not just yet, I have a few questions for our friend here…” Gentleman said, before he leaned forward and laced his fingers together as he looked down to Hacker as he struggled to get his Hoodie back on himself properly, coming face to face with the older man when he got it back down over his head. He froze in place as he stared at him with wide eyes. “…Tell me, are you going to be willing to talk? Or are you going to make this more difficult than you already have?” Gentleman asked.

  
  


Hacker was quiet for a good long while, making a bit of a face and wincing before he turned his head and spat blood onto the floor of his hotel room, losing one of his canines in the process. Then he turned and looked back up at Gentleman with a rather forced and very bloody grin on his face.

  
  


“shouldhavecalledahead” He said, and Mole couldn’t help but notice Hacker was far more fluent in French than he was, even if he spoke it far faster than necessary, nearly to the point of his words becoming incomprehensible. “wouldhavemadecoffee”

  
  


“We don’t plan on making this little visit last any longer than necessary anyway, I doubt we would have had time to drink it.” Gentleman said, just humoring him really. “You and I have a little business that we need to discuss though. Particularly you digging into ours.”

  
  


“yourbusinessismybusiness” Hacker said with a small shrug. “peoplepaygoodmoneyforinformation”

  
  


“Talking like that gets dirty criminals killed.” Mole said lowly, and Gentleman held up a hand to silence him.

  
  


“My companion here isn’t wrong. Had you chosen anyone else as your target, you would likely already be dead. Not everyone is as kind as I am, you see…” Gentleman said. “However, I still have quite an issue with you knowing such… _personal_ information about us. Not that names we no longer go by is the most dangerous information you could have, I’d still very much like to know how you were able to dig it up in the first place…”

  
  


“nottheworstihave” Hacker said with a mischievous little laugh. “yourgirlfriendsgotgreatnudes”

  
  


Before Hacker could say anything else, the bottom of Gentleman’s shoe was pressed down hard against his face, grinding into his nose, forehead and cheeks with a near dangerous amount of pressure. For a split second Hacker was afraid that Gentleman was simply going to stand on him and crush his skull right then and there. He reached up, grabbing at Gentleman’s ankle and clawing desperately at it.

  
  


“ _owfuckfuckgetoff_ ” Hacker pleaded rather desperately, and moments later the pressure was relieved and he let out a loud groan as he rubbed at his face, the pain in his head not residing anymore than it had since he smacked it against the bathtub.

  
  


“I don’t believe you’re in any position to talk like that. Keep in mind that I have no qualms about killing you if I have to.” Gentleman said, but to his surprise, Hacker started laughing again, though this time it was considerably weaker than before.

  
  


“everyoneleavesatrail” Hacker muttered, “ifounditotherswilltoo”

  
  


“And what makes you think we wouldn’t simply hunt them down as we have done here today?” Gentleman asked. If they could find this Hacker, he saw no reason that any others would be able to hide from them any better.

  
  


“noteveryonesaskindasiam” Hacker spat, a rather bitter look aimed at Gentleman as he turned his own words against him. “wontwaittoruinyou”

  
  


“And tell me, _Mon Ami_ , why _did_ you wait? Why contact us to show what you had found when there are indeed people out there who are willing to pay good money for what you might have?” Gentleman asked. “I can tell you’re no fool, if you wanted to expose us for what we are and what we have done, you would have done so, and sold to the highest bidder at that. So now… I can’t help but wonder what we have that you want…”

  
  


Hacker was quiet for a moment, just idly running his tongue over the new gap where a tooth should have been as he thought about what to say to the man staring down at him. The conversation was interesting for Mole to watch, a back and forth he didn’t get to see too terribly often. Gentleman was a persuasive fellow, and it often amazed Mole how easily he could bend others to his will with the slightest bit of effort. It was just as amazing, if far rarer to seem when someone tried to turn the tables on his uncle like this though.

  
  


“safteyinnumbers” Hacker finally said. “youhaveconnectionsiwantin”

  
  


“Want in? Want in what?” Gentleman asked with a scoff. He sat up straighter and took his cane firmly in his hand only to stab it down onto the floor, inches from Hacker’s head. The green clad man froze in his spot once more as the two engaged in a staring contest, waiting for the other to move or show any signs of weakness that could be exploited for personal gain. There was a tension in the air that Mole had felt before as he watched Gentleman make deals with people they weren’t terribly fond of, but it had never been quite so palpable.

  
  


“gotabrainfigureitout” Hacker said, but his voice was quiet, nearly overshadowed by the loud thump that sounded as Gentleman lifted his cane again and brought it back down harder onto the floor, causing Hacker to flinch.

  
  


“I’ve seen your story before, met many people like you.” Gentleman said. “Fled from one country to another, ended up hiding out here, _oui?_ Spent the last few months identifying and keeping tabs on every crime syndicate you could find, and now that you’ve got a firm hand on the pulse of Monaco’s underbelly, you’re ready to try and get involved. You know you can’t do it without friends though.”  
  
“dingdingdingwehaveawinner” Hacker said, waving his pointer finger back and forth to mimic a bell ringing.

  
  


“For someone so desperate to catch my attention, you seemed unprepared for our little visit here today.” Gentleman mused.

  
  


“expectedaphonecallnotabande” Hacker said, his eyes quickly glancing towards where his room door had been left ajar, undoubtedly broken by the kick Mole had given it.

  
  


“Oh, _Mon Ami_ , you had to have known this little conversation needed to take place face to face. After all, you wanted my attention, and now you have it.” Gentleman said, and he pulled his cane away from where it had been pressed hard into the floor right near Hacker’s face. “Now, you’ve got one shot at this before I make up my mind about what to do with you. _Impress me_.”

  
  


“knowyouhavebeefwithinterpol” Hacker said.

  
  


“That’s common knowledge. Nearly any criminal you could speak to in France has been targeted by Interpol at some point or another. The longer you avoid them, the more attention they pay you, and eventually they begin to learn things about you, no matter how hard you keep your information under wraps.” Gentleman said. “Of course… what you’ve shown to have found in a few months is already more than anything Interpol has ever managed to dig up…”

  
  


“getonmylevel” Hacker said. “gotmoretheydpayforit”

  
  


“Is that a threat?” Gentleman asked, though he hardly seemed phased by the idea of Hacker turning over whatever information he had managed to dig up on Gentleman and the rest of his crew to Interpol. Hacker couldn’t tell if it was because he truly just really didn’t care about the risks he faced, or if he simply had an outstanding poker face.

  
  


“yougotthreechoices” Hacker said, holding up three fingers to Gentleman. “killmeletmegoorletmein”

  
  


“And tell me,” Gentleman asked. “What _is_ stopping me from just killing you? You’re not making a very good case for yourself…”

  
  


“moreusealive” Hacker said with a small shrug, and a wicked grin spread across his face. “friendscloseenemiescloser”

  
  


Despite the smile on Hacker’s face, he was clearly as tense as he had been the entire time the two intruders had been there, unsure of where this altercation would lead him, or if it would simply end here with his death. Mole, on the other hand, had been fairly relaxed since he had turned Hacker over to Gentleman for him to interrogate and decide what to do with. His nose had largely stopped bleeding, and while he was still in pain from his tussle with Hacker, he didn’t feel ill at ease with how things had been going in their favor. Something changed though, and while Hacker might not have been able to pick it out from Gentleman’s rather stoic expression and cool exterior, Mole could see that something had struck a cord with Gentleman and suddenly the entire mood seemed to shift. He could nearly see the gears turning in Gentleman’s head as he stared down at Hacker, and the smaller man awaited a response from his captor.

  
  


“Gentleman should not trust Small Criminal, will regret it…” Mole said after a few tense moments of silence in the room, taking a small step forward towards the two of them, but Gentleman once again held a hand up to stop him.

  
  


“ _Mon Neveu_ , there will be many times in your life where you will find that you must act based on who has more leverage, and what skills someone may be able to offer to you.” Gentleman said, his eyes never leaving Hacker as he spoke. “It has nothing to do with trust, believe me when I say this. However, while our little friend here may have information on us that would be… _detrimental_ if it got into the wrong hands, I have to take into consideration the benefits I might receive by… shall we say… taking him under my wing…”

  
  


“Mole… not understand what Gentleman wants?” Mole asked, looking between he and Hacker as he spoke.

  
  


“Even the most vicious of dogs can be trained if you have the right techniques.” Gentleman said, but he only left Mole more confused, not understanding why Gentleman wanted to involve dogs in this mess at all. A silence settled over the room for a minute before Gentleman gripped his cane tight and stood from the bed. Hacker’s smile immediately faded, and he quickly scrambled back away from him until he couldn’t be farther from him, his back hitting the wall, but Gentleman made no moves to go after him, or any indication that Mole should either. Instead he smoothed out his suit and regarded Hacker carefully. “… _Monsieur Hacker_ , here is what I’m going to ask you to do. In regards to the information you’ve dug up about me and my cohorts, delete it. All of it. I want you to do what you can to erase the source you found it from as well if possible. I’m not going to be pleased if I find out you keep any records of it.”

  
  


“…willstillremember…” Hacker said lowly.

  
  


“And if I ever feel like there is a risk of you talking to someone you shouldn’t about what you know, I will have you disposed of as well…” Gentleman said, his eyes wandering to Mole, and Mole’s grip on his Freedom Spoon tightened until his knuckles turned white. “…At a later date though. For now I simply want you to gather your things and put some real clothes on. Don’t leave anything behind, you won’t be coming back here.”

  
  


“Uncle…” Mole said, a terse tone in his voice as he stared Gentleman down. He wouldn’t show his apprehension so openly, but he hoped he could catch Gentleman’s attention, and get him to see that he needed to reconsider what he was doing here.

  
  


“yournotgonnakillme” Hacker asked, his eyes wide, and a far more genuine smile gracing his lips for half a second, before it quickly faded as nerves set in again. “whereareyoutakingme” He asked with a frown, but none the less he did as he was asked and stood up, moving to the bed once Gentleman had begun making his way towards the busted room door. Mole remained silent as he glared at Gentleman for ignoring his words as he passed by, but in the end there was little he could do but bite his tongue and follow after Gentleman..

  
  


“Out to dinner. It’s been a long day, and I’ve hardly had a bite to eat. I’m feeling rather famished…” Gentleman said. Both he and Mole watched carefully as Hacker changed clothes and gathered his belongings up as quickly as he could, and Gentleman chose to ignore the fact that Hacker’s idea of putting on ‘real clothes’ seemed to only consist of swapping his sweats for jeans, and putting on a slightly brighter, and significantly less bloodstained hoodie, still a retina burning green. A style that would clearly be very out of place for the restaurants that Gentleman was likely to pick, but he said nothing on the matter, and as Hacker joined Gentleman and a very begrudging Mole at the door, it was clear he had no desire to second guess his choice in clothing. He did offer him a handkerchief to wipe up some of the blood from his face though. “And don’t worry about your wounds, I’ll see to it that they are treated before we sit down to eat. Both you and Mole.”

  
  


“fuckmeupthenfeedme” Hacker asked, reaching up to press a hand against his pounding temple. “whatagentleman” He said with a snort. Gentleman held an open arm for Hacker, and he stepped into it to allow Gentleman to lead him out with a hand on his back, and two of the most dangerous criminals he had spent so much time digging up every little bit of dirt he could on either side of him.

  
  


“Don’t mistake my actions for kindness. Both my demands and warnings still stand. I’d simply like to talk things out with you in a far more civil environment.” Gentleman said, as a small smirk graced his lips.

“Now, I believe we have some private business to discuss, _non_?”

 


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Securitech

When it was just one person hiding away from danger in a vent, it wasn’t so bad. They could lay low, and listen in silence as guards rushed by and alarms blared in the distance as their teammates tried to coordinate around whatever dangers were coming their way. When things calmed down, they could make their way down the small ladders that had lead them up there in the first place and get back to work.

  
  


It had worked out well for Lookout at first. She was nimble and quick, able to fit into just about any tight space you could ask of her when she needed to, and hiding in a vent was no trouble for her. Someone had tripped an alarm. She didn’t know who, because all she could hear over the headset she had that connected her to the rest of her team was a slew of cursing at varying volumes, and heavy breathing from those who needed to stay silent. Nobody had spotted her though, and she managed to tuck herself away in the bathroom vent before anyone took notice to her location in the chaos of it all. At the first sounds of rattling from the ladder that had lead her up there however, her blood ran cold and for an instant she felt frozen in her spot.

  
  


“outofthewaycomingthrough”

  
  


Before she could react, Hacker’s head popped up from the entrance of the vent, the lime green of his hoodie a stark contrast to the dull gray of the sheet metal even in the dark. There was no time to get out of his way as he clambered up through the tight space, and even forced himself over and past Lookout despite her complaints, shoving at her as much as he needed to in order to get to the other side. There was a short, terrifying moment where it seemed as though he might have gotten his backpack stuck on a loose screw on the top of the vent and ended up laying halfway on her lap. With a hiss and a few sharp tugs though he yanked it free and continued to claw his way forward.

  
  


“Hey, watch it!” Lookout snapped at him, shoving at his side once he was finally most of the way over her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

  
  


“incomingincomingincoming”

  
  


Lookout watched with a puzzled look on her face as the man settled down a short ways away from her. Even when she could understand the words he was saying, she often didn’t understand the meaning behind them. Sometimes she swore he was speaking an entirely different language than the rest of them. Before she could even begin to question him though, the ladder rattled and shook even harder than before, and when she looked back she could see the hulking form of Mole worming his way inside the vent. She cursed before scrambling after Hacker to try and make enough space for everyone while staying close to the nearest exit.

  
  


Even with the distance Hacker had moved though, it wasn’t enough to accommodate for Mole’s large size.

  
  


“Wait- Mole wait just a moment I need to-” Lookout started, before she was cut off and nearly shoved over as the palm of a large hand was pressed into her face, dusty and sweaty at the same time. Mole had toppled forward as he pulled himself in, and while it didn’t seem like he’d meant to use her face as leverage, getting into a vent like this could be tricky work when you were in a hurry.

  
  


Lookout jerked her face away and pushed herself up enough to scoot back from the man dragging himself into the vent to sit down next to them, not wanting to end up crushed by his weight. “ _Mole_ , please wait just a moment we have to-” She started once again, but she felt something crunch under the palm of her hand as she tried to readjust herself.

  
  


“owowowww” Hacker all but whined as he yanked his hand out from under where it had become trapped under Lookout’s, and most of her weight had been pressed down onto it. He quickly shook it out, but it seemed mostly OK when Lookout glanced at it. “dontdamagetoolsofthetrade”

  
  


“Scoot over more you idiot! We have an entire vent and you’re the one keeping us crammed together like this!” Lookout snapped while Hacker rubbed at his hand, and she grunted in further discomfort as she was further squished between Hacker and Mole as the latter of the two finally settled down with a tired huff.

  
  


“goingbackfromwhenceicame” Hacker prattled off before he leaned forwards just a little, looking past Lookout to where Mole was now the main obstacle blocking his path to the ladder. “needhacks”

  
  


“Should have thought of that before you nearly crushed me trying to climb over.” Lookout muttered. She felt Mole’s elbow jerk out, hitting her in the side and knocking her farther against Hacker, who was struggling not to just topple over from the sudden movement.

  
  


“Dirty Criminals acting stupid.” Mole grumbled, his breathing still labored from his quick escape and struggle to get up into the vent with the two of them. “Should be quiet, quiet criminals don’t get caught.”

  
  


“crumblingwallsturnlotsofeyes” Hacker pointed out, and he scooted just a little farther down, giving each of them a bit more breathing room.

  
  


“Mole will pay money to see Techno Criminal break down wall quietly.” Mole challenged, leaning forward as far as he could to glare at Hacker before his head hit the wall of the vent in front of him.

  
  


“callthesneaksquadegetthejobdoneright”

  
  


Mole’s grip on his hammer seemed to tighten, his knuckles going white around it’s handle. There wasn’t much he could have done right then with how cramped they all were in there, but before he could even begin to think of a way around their current predicament, a hiss of static came over each of their com lines, and a familiar voice spoke over their private airway.

  
  


‘ _Mes Ami?_ ’

  
  


“Gentleman!” Lookout said as she sat up, more than happy to have Hacker and Mole’s rather petty complaints cut off, and to offer her own opinion to who it really mattered. “If you would, I’d like you to keep this in mind for the next heist we pull; if you really feel the need to send me in with monkeys, just send me in alone with Hector. It’d be less of a punishment than this.”

  
  


“Mole is no monkey…” Mole said quietly.

  
  


“seenamirrorlately”

  
  


“ _Stop it._ ” Lookout snapped at the both of them before Mole could respond to Hacker’s snarky comment. For a few almost blissful moments, both men shut their traps and simply sat to let Lookout discuss their next course of action with Gentleman.

  
  


‘ _Amie, I’m sorry you’re not having a terribly wonderful time, but where are you?_ ’ Gentleman asked. ‘ _I don’t have visuals on any of you. Have you taken care of the evidence?_ ’

  
  


“We’re still working on getting up to the second floor, that’s where Hacker said he’d need to access the data, right?” Lookout asked.

  
  


“bingo” Hacker said, giving a little thumbs up.

  
  


“Mole is stuck in vent with Lookout and Techno Criminal. Alarm went off, guards everywhere.” Mole added with a disgruntled tone in his voice.

  
  


‘ _And Cleaner?_ ’ Gentleman asked, only to be met with silence from the three of them for a few short moments.

  
  


“I… can’t say. I haven’t seen the bald man since we arrived. I assume he’s off lurking around in some unsavory corner of the building, just out of sight.” Lookout said.

  
  


There was a small sigh over the headset, tensions running high even for Gentleman, but it wasn’t quite to the point of frustration. It wasn’t like there weren’t always moments of stress in heists like this. More often than not turns for the worse were anticipated more than anything. ‘ _He will come around when he can, I’m sure. Which of you set off the alarm?_ ’ He asked. ‘ _It was going so smoothly up until a few minutes ago…_ ’

  
  


“Mole tripped alarm, had to run.” Mole said with a small shrug, his posture slack as he took the time they had there to simply take a breather and regain a little bit of the energy he had lost while running for his life. “Cameras and lasers everywhere.”

  
  


“He’s right. I expected security to be tight, given the fact that the place is called Securitech, but this is ridiculous….” Lookout muttered. “It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be calming down out there anytime soon. Going to be a lot harder to pull this off now that they know we’re here…” Lookout said.

  
  


‘ _There’s always a bit of risk involved when undertaking these sorts of endeavors._ ’ Gentleman said.

  
  


“I know that, I’m just saying that all the guards are going to be on high alert now…” She muttered.

  
  


“closeprogramorwaitforresponse” Hacker asked.

  
  


‘ _There’s no need to pull out of there. You’ll have to proceed with caution, but if you do I don’t foresee a great risk of injury to any of you._ ’ Gentleman said.

  
  


“Gentleman has plan?” Mole asked.

  
  


There was radio silence after that, and while the situation was still rather tense for the three of them, there was no fear among any of them that their leader would leave them to figure this out on their own. Gentleman was a strategist at heart, and there was no doubt that he was working and reworking a few various approaches to the new, troublesome situation they had found themselves in.

  
  


At first, as they waited, there were no words shared among them. The alarms outside had been turned off, but they could still hear the sounds of guards and civilians alike rushing to and fro in a rather panicked frenzy as they tried to locate the trespassers who had set off the alarms in the first place. While it was a necessary evil to sit and wait it out, it wasn’t easy for any of them to handle, and as five minutes turned to ten, and then to fifteen, a quick, rhythmic tapping could be heard. While it wouldn’t have been a problem in most situations, each tap sounded like a shotgun blast there in the reverberant vent. Both Mole and Lookout looked towards Hacker, who had his forehead pressed against his knees, and his foot pressed against the side of the vent, tapping away to the beat of nothing.

  
  


He didn’t notice the two of them staring at first, but when Lookout jabbed her elbow into his side, he jumped, and quickly looked over at the two of them.

  
  


“whatwasthatfor” He asked.

  
  


“You don’t think guards aren’t going to notice someone banging on the side of their vent?” Lookout asked, seeming rather befuddles at Hacker’s lack of care in a situation like this. Even the smallest mistake could land you in prison, or worse, if you weren’t careful.

  
  


“Guards talking outside vent, might here you.” Mole said, and Hacker scoffed, slouching down a little more and wrapping his arms tighter around his knees.

  
  


“hatewaitinggettingantsy”

  
  


“This is your first heist since your big break out and I’ve already had to pull two tranquilizers out of your ass cheek! You might have been better off just staying in the hospital, because you’re going to get yourself killed if you won’t wait for the coast to clear.” Lookout said. They had only gone and pulled Hacker from the hospital two weeks back, and this was the first time she was getting a look at how he really worked in a heisting situation. With how many problems had been thrown at them since they arrived, most of them due to Hacker running in and trying to give them all heart attacks, she wasn’t about to hide her disdain for working with someone who had turned out to be so… chaotic.

  
  


How could you trust someone with your life when you could never quite know what they might do next?

  
  


“betteroffdead” Hacker mumbled lowly, a distinct twinge of bitterness in his words. “takeabulletintheheadbeforeigoback”

  
  


“If that’s how you want to think, then fine, but don’t go attracting attention to us as well… of course I think being locked up is always preferable to being shot dead. Gives you a chance to find a way out and get on with your life.” Lookout said.

  
  


“youdbreakeasybetteroffdeadtoo” Hacker snapped, rather suddenly sitting up with balled fists, like he wanted to hit her just for saying that. She didn’t even flinch, and he made no attempts to actually do so. There was a fire in his eyes though that kept her from saying anything more.

  
  


“Lookout didn’t get Tiny Criminal from cell.” Mole said, speaking up from the other side of Lookout, and he drew both of their attention to him. “Didn’t see what cell was like. Mole was sent to help, help with Locksmith and Quiet Man. We know, Lookout can’t know.”

  
  


It was true. Most of the escape was a blurry mess in Hacker’s memory despite how recently it had taken place. It all happened so quickly that even he hadn’t been able to keep up with what was happening until he had finally taken a moment to breath and relax when they made their way out and left the building via helicopter. A made dash for his life that left him little time to collect his wits or even think about anything other than _escape_ by any means necessary eventually settled into heavy breathing as he looked around at the people who had saved him. Some somewhat familiar, some entirely new to him, and a voice coming over the headphones that had been placed on him that stirred up a horrible mixture of emotions that he thought he had long since buried away with his time in a cell.

  
  


‘ _Bonjour, Mon Chien. It’s been some time…_ ’

  
  


Mole was right, Lookout hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen how bad it was, and she wouldn’t understand why being locked up in there wasn’t anything like ending up in prison. She likely never would either, as Hacker didn’t really feel like thinking back on his time there enough to really explain it to her.

  
  


Hacker sat back down against the wall of the vent, a heavy sigh leaving him as he once again pulled his knees close to his chest, his fingers tapping against his leg rather than his foot against the metal. There was a heavy tension that had once again settled over the three of them, though this time it wasn’t from the fear of being detected by the guards talking below, but instead had been caused by dissension. Fighting would only end them up in a morgue, so it was better to simply cut off conversation before things got too far out of hand. It certainly left a bad taste in their mouths though.

  
  


Slowly but surely each of them began to relax, and after a few minutes of thinking back on the day he had been freed from his own personal prison, Hacker smirked and turned to look down towards Mole.

  
  


“dontrecallyouhelping” He said, a quiet but teasing tone in his voice as he spoke, and it made Mole bristle up defensively before he had even finished speaking. “brokethewrongwallalertedeveryguard”

  
  


The vent creaked again, this time with the weight of Mole shifting around, and Lookout was a little surprised to see him reaching across her in an attempt to grab Hacker. She could only imagine Mole was going to try and drag Hacker closer to shut him up, or get him back for the things he had said. Either way, it wasn’t something she was about to allow, and she stuck her foot out to plant it firmly against the wall of the vent to keep either one from getting at the other. The movement ended up having much more force behind it than she intended it to though, and the sound it caused was far louder than Hacker’s tapping had been.

  
  


“Will you two _fucking stop_?!” She demanded, but neither man responded to her. Instead she was met with silence from them, and the only sound surrounding them was the echoing that her kick had caused.

  
  


Each of them held their breath and remained frozen in their spots as they struggled to listen, to pick up any sound coming from outside the vent, but it had gone eerily quiet in only moments it seemed, and nobody wanted to be the first to speak up and suffer the consequences for it.

  
  


Then, as quickly as the silence had come around, it was broken by the sound of the creaky ladder that had lead each one of them up into the vent being jostled around and used, someone climbing up quickly. All three thieves that had cramped themselves into such an uncomfortable space panicked, scrambling to grab their belongings and the loot that they had collected so far before making a desperate rush towards the other end of the vent, pushing and shoving at Hacker as much as they felt necessary when they decided he wasn’t moving fast enough. It did little more than trip him up though. The fact that they tried to traverse such a tight space as they stumbled and banged against the side of the vent, creating a number of loud bangs and sudden metallic thuds, did nothing to calm their nerves.

  
  


It was only after Mole had taken half a second to actually look back over his shoulder to see who was making their way up that he stopped. He reached out and grabbed Lookout, dragging her back while she let out a rather unfortunate yelp as fear overtook her, and for a moment she struggled against him by hitting him as hard as she could with both her fists and elbows, though he hardly seemed to care.

  
  


“Not a threat! Is only Quiet Man!” Mole said, and while Lookout’s struggling did instantly calm down to an extent, she did continue to hit him until he let go of her. Once she was free from his grasp, she pushed him aside a little and both she and Hacker looked past him to see it was in fact Cleaner. He had hauled himself up into the vent and taken a seat right by the entrance, not caring that the others seemed to be fleeing for their lives in the slightest. They both let out a small breath of relief as Mole struggled to turn around and head back towards the vent’s entrance.

  
  


“Christ, about gave me a damn heart attack…” Lookout muttered, taking a few more seconds to collect herself and let her heartbeat settle before she slowly followed after Mole.

  
  


“Smells like smoke.” Mole commented, and for a brief moment he wondered if any guards would be able to locate them because of the strong cigar smell Cleaner always seemed to have around him.

  
  


“Smells like blood…” Lookout grunted as she sat herself back down beside Mole with a groan, rubbing at a few sore spots that had gotten banged up in the midst of their mad dash.

  
  


“Quiet Man’s covered in it.” Mole said.

  
  


“…Why?” Lookout asked, her voice filled with both concern and confusion.

  
  


“knockdowndragout” Hacker said. “whathesgoodforyeah”

  
  


Static sounded over all of their headsets once again before Gentleman’s voice came through and caught all of their attention. ‘ _You said you found Cleaner?_ ’

  
  


“More like he found us.” Lookout informed. “He’s a little late to the party, but we’ve got the whole team grouped up now.”

  
  


‘ _Well I’m sorry to say he won’t have long to rest. I need him to head upstairs to… dispatch a few inconveniences for me. Clear a path for you all to escape through once the evidence has been erased._ ’ Gentleman said slowly, and the only response he got from Cleaner was the sound of him deliberately cracking each one of his knuckles loudly, the sound getting picked up by their headsets easily. ‘ _Lookout, you will go with him. It will be easier for him to pick out who will be the biggest threat to a clean escape with you by his side. Watch your step._ ’

  
  


“whataboutme” Hacker asked, not giving Lookout time to question Gentleman’s reasoning, though with just a look at her it didn’t seem like she had any intention to. While some of them were far more loyal to Gentleman than others, there was no denying that the man was a brilliant crime boss, and more often than not it was simply easier to follow his lead.

  
  


‘ _Mon Neveu, head upstairs with the others. Keep close to Hacker’s side, you’ll be a valuable asset in making a quick escape for him after he’s done his job. I’m sure he’ll make your job far easier as well, seeing as you’ve already been having trouble with the security measures in place there…_ ’ Gentleman said, communicating his plan to Mole rather than Hacker.

  
  


“Mole does not need Hacker to do job. Mole has Freedom Spoon. Freedom Spoon all Mole needs.” Mole said with a grunt. Even in a group like this, Mole tended to work on his own, separated from the others as he created quick paths for them and himself both.

  
  


‘ _I’m well aware of that, but this is what I’m asking you to do, and I expect you to do it._ ’ Gentleman said, a firmer tone to his voice that Mole had heard plenty of times before. He knew his uncle wasn’t going to budge on this.

  
  


“I gotta say, I kinda agree with Mole here.” Lookout said, and as soon as Hacker opened his mouth to object, she reached over to slap her hand over it to keep him quiet. “I’m still not sure why you sent us to get this guy in the first place. He’s done nothing but cause us trouble and try to pick fights. Speaking from my experiences just here in this vent, if you send him with Mole we might not _have_ a Hacker left to come back with us when it’s time to high tail it out of here…” She said. As she spoke though, she watched Hacker’s expression change from irritation at being silenced so very rudely to hurt as he listened to her words. While she didn’t often regret things she said, the sad look in his eyes made her begin to second guess what she had just said, made her think that maybe, _just maybe_ , she was judging the guy too hard without really knowing him.

  
  


Then she felt a warm, wet tongue press against the palm of her hand, and she yanked it away from his mouth like she had been burned by him. Hacker’s expression immediately shifted to that of mischievous joy, and his laughter sounded throughout the vent.

  
  


“ _ **Disgusting.**_ ” She hissed, before reeling her fist back to slug him in the arm. His laughter got a bit weaker, but was still there as he rubbed at the spot she had hit.

  
  


‘ _He’ll behave himself once he gets back to work, won’t you Hacker?_ ’ Gentleman asked, using the same firm and commanding tone he had used on Mole.

  
  


“yessireeperfectlittleangel”

  
  


‘ _Then I trust that he and Mole can handle the task that I’ve assigned them, finding the evidence, and deleting it._ ’ Gentleman said. ‘ _You have your own job to worry about, Lookout._ ’

  
  


“Babysitting…” Lookout grumbled to herself, but of course everyone else heard it over their headsets. She sighed and bumped against Mole, who began scooting over and crowding Cleaner towards the ladder. “Come on Cleaner, if we’re going to do this we might as well get it done now. I can’t imagine the guards are going to stop looking for us anytime soon.”

  
  


Cleaner grunted in affirmation, and without another sound he started down the ladder into the bathroom. He nudged the head of one of the guards he had knocked, scooting the unconscious man’s dead weight over with his foot as he waited. Behind him Mole came down the ladder as well with quite a bit less trouble than he had going up. He needed to get out of the way so that Lookout could join Cleaner, and she dropped down from the vent with a quiet thud after that, smoothing out her vest a little.

  
  


“Cleaner and I will head down towards the south end of the floor, circle around, and meet you upstairs when we’ve gathered everything down here. What’s on the other side of the vent?” Lookout asked.

  
  


“davideslair” Hacker said as he climbed down from the ladder behind them all, hopping down and skipping over the last two rungs. “sweepinglaserconelaserneedvirusinput”

  
  


“You can handle it?” Lookout asked.

  
  


“courseicanstaroftheshow” Hacker said with a snort. “beelineupstairs”

  
  


“Alright, try not to get yourselves killed before we get up there. We’ll have the way out cleared for a quick get away by the time you’ve finished up your job.” Lookout said, getting hold of her EMP device to have it at the ready for sticky situations.

  
  


“Mole promises to come back alive. Cannot promise same for Green Man.” Mole said.

  
  


“bigguysfallhard” Hacker said, bumping against Mole as he passed by him to scour the bathroom for an outlet he could use to inject a new virus into the building’s security system through. He found two, oddly placed side by side.

  
  


“Gentleman wants Mole to work with Small Criminal. Mole will do so. Mole not let Small Criminal under skin though.” Mole said, hefting his hammer up and resting it against his shoulder.

  
  


“toolittletoolate” Hacker said as he squatted down next to the outlets and got to work.

  
  


“ _Play nice._ ” Lookout hissed, pointing her finger between the two of them in a warning fashion before she turned and tugged on Cleaner’s sleeve as she moved past him, prompting the older man to follow behind her as she headed towards the lower end of the floor to plan their escape.

  
  


Mole didn’t waste any time after they had departed, turning back towards the ladder and making his way back up into the vent. It wasn’t so bad when it wasn’t cramped full of people, and he had made his way almost to the other side when he heard Hacker pulling himself up into the vent behind him.

  
  


“safetodropdowngrabcash” Hacker said once he caught up to where Mole had stopped to wait for him at the far end of the vent.

  
  


“Hacker turn lasers off?” Mole asked.

  
  


“downforthecount” Hacker said with a nod. “secondladderacrosstheway”

  
  


With a nod, Mole opened the hatch, and he dropped his hammer down before descending the ladder himself. The office was dark and quiet, no sign of any active security measures anywhere in the room. He had to admit that, whether he liked it or not, Gentleman was right in saying that Hacker could make his job far easier for him. As long as he did his own job properly anyway.

  
  


“How many things Hacker need to delete?” Mole asked as he grabbed his hammer off the floor, and Hacker dropped down behind him. While Mole went about gathering all the cash he could see in the room, Hacker ran across to the second access ladder built into the wall and got the vent hatch open.

  
  


“seethreevideosinsystem” Hacker said. “cantaccessfromheregottagoupstairs”

  
  


After Mole had stuffed his bad with all the money he could find he joined Hacker at the ladder. He did throw a glance back at the two deactivated lasers he could see in the room, and once Hacker had gotten up into the vent and his backpack was out of their range, the viruses left the security measures in this room to follow him. The lasers sparked a few times, and moments later they came back to life, continuing on as though nothing had happened. Mole didn’t even give them the chance to spot him, following Hacker up just before they came back online.

  
  


“employeeaheadshutyourfacesneakby” Hacker said.

  
  


Mole didn’t actually know how Hacker could possibly know what was on the other side of the vent when, as far as he knew, none of them had ventured over to this part of the building yet. He hadn’t been wrong yet though, and as Hacker quietly opened the hatch and Mole peered out around him, he could see a young lady looking through some paper work just outside the vent.

  
  


She turned out to be no trouble at all, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings as both men made their way down, and after only a few moments at the computer directly behind her, Hacker made quick work of the laser blocking their way, and he didn’t even blink as he pushed through the alarm door that lead out and around to the stairs they needed.

  
  


The way Hacker moved through the place, not an ounce of worry or concern on his face as he did so, it was confusing to Mole. He noticed that while Hacker was working, whether it was simply typing at a computer or breaking into the system with just his phone an an outlet, he didn’t have his usual manic smile plastered across his face. Instead his expression seemed blank, with just his lips moving slightly as he whispered things to himself that Mole could neither understand nor entirely hear, and his eyes darted too and fro as information and pass codes to nearby doors or locks poured out onto the screen for him. It was only when his attention from his job was broken that Hacker seemed to return to his normal self.

  
  


“stairwaytoheavenbaby” Hacker said as he all but threw the door to the stairs open, and he started a quick trot up them, leaving Mole trailing behind a short ways.

  
  


“Hacker had done this before?” Mole asked, and Hacker looked down at him in confusion. “Infiltrated Securitech?”

  
  


“notthisplace” Hacker said with a shake of his head. “passwordispassword”

  
  


“…What?” Mole asked, staring up at Hacker in confusion before meeting him at the top of the staircase.

  
  


“tooeasyshittysecurity” Hacker explained, waving his phone in Mole’s face, before he pushed the door that lead out into the second floor open and he had a quick look around. He didn’t even wait for Mole to take in their surroundings before he had already run off ahead, crouching down beside a couple of outlets, all lined up next to one another, to get the viruses he had going before restarted for this floor.

  
  


While Hacker worked on getting his hacks back up, Mole had a quick look around, and he immediately decided he didn’t like the feel of this place. He had never seen the inside of a computer before, but something in his gut told him that this was what it would be like to be trapped inside of one. He had to step over countless cables that seemed to be running from one wall to another, many wrapped up nearly and held together by tightly wound zip ties, all of which threatened to trip him up if he didn’t watch where he was going.

  
  


Mole waited about as patiently as he could for Hacker to finish what he was doing. When one outlet was done, he unplugged his phone from it, only to scoot over ad plug into the next to start the process again and finish just as quickly. Mole scratched at the back of his head as he watched, observing as Hacker’s thumbs went into overdrive typing in commands.

  
  


“…Small criminal can use just phone to hurt security?” Mole asked.

  
  


“yeah” Hacker said curtly, the same stoic look on his face that Mole had seen before.

  
  


“Small criminal does not need computer? But carries one anyway?” Mole asked, and after a quick look down both directions of the hall, he stepped closer and knelt down beside Hacker as he tried to get a peek at what it was the other man was doing. Out of all the members of their crew, Hacker’s expertiese was one that he had continuously failed to wrap his head around, but it also piqued his curiosity far more than any other.

  
  


“nodontneedit” Hacker said, and almost as soon as Mole had crouch down beside him to watch, he unplugged his phone from the last outlet he had found and stood up. “goteyesaheadletsgo” He said, and ran off around the corner without Mole, leaving the large man with a rather perturbed expression on his face, and no explanation as to how anything he did worked. Having even his slightest interest in something brushed off like it was nothing… well, Mole supposed that’s what he got for trying to take a moment to understand what someone like Hacker did.

  
  


Maybe it was for the best. This was neither the time nor place, and even if Hacker had given him more than a few uncaring responses, Mole knew he probably wouldn’t have really been able to understand it anyway.

  
  


They weren’t here to chat. Mole needed to focus on what he had to do to get this job done, and so did Hacker.

  
  


When Mole made his way around the corner and caught up with Hacker, he found the shorter man in the middle of breaking into a locked room. Mole wasn’t quite sure why, since the schematics he had seen of the floor hadn’t marked this room as anything they should have been particularly interested in, and he had been under the impression that they were headed straight for the room that had the computer terminals Hacker needed to access to finish the job. When Hacker got the door unlocked, he opened it slowly, and Mole got a quick look inside. Guards, two of them from what he could see, and the room seemed to be devoid of any electronic security unlike the rest of the floor.

  
  


“Not room we need. Map said other side of floor…” Mole stated, looking over his shoulder down the hall, but when he looked back Hacker had moved and the door had closed with a quiet click. Mole looked around frantically for half a second, spinning once in place to check all directions like Hacker might have crept away. Then he reached out and pushed the door ajar again. He could see Hacker creeping into the room, mere feet behind the guard closest to him. Mole held his breath, eyes scanning the room once again, and he saw nothing of value that would be worth breaking in for. Hacker seemed to think differently though, and after the green clad man threw a quick check over his shoulders to make sure he hadn’t been noticed, he looked to Mole and pressed a finger against the wide grin he wore and gave him a playful wink before he started digging around. What seemed to have caught his attention was a tool bag, and after only a few moments of quietly snooping around inside it he pulled a rather large wrench out, hefting it up and looking far too proud of himself for finding it. He held it up for show as he made his way back towards Mole, shutting the door behind him before anyone could take notice.

  
  


“ifihityouwiththisisitwhackamole” Hacker asked, laughing at his own stupid joke as he ignored the way Mole’s eyes narrowed at him, and the frustrated huff of air that he blew out through his nose.

  
  


“Hacker is supposed to stay by Mole, not go off on own.” Mole said, but Hacker just reached out and grabbed Mole by the wrist, pulling him along as he started off down the short hall.

  
  


“forourgreatergood” Hacker said, not letting go of Mole’s wrist until he came to the end of the hall, and he leaned against the wall before peering around the corner. Mole, letting go of his annoyance for the moment, had a look around it as well to take stock of what they had to deal with. A guard watching a door, most likely a locked one at that, and from where he stood Mole could see the pistol that the man had strapped to his belt. Not the most intimidating obstacle he ha ever come across, but as always if he could avoid being short, he’d prefer to do so.

  
  


“Hacker can make distraction?” Mole asked quietly, looking down to Hacker who just shook his head in response.

  
  


“notmygig” He said. “needtogetthroughdoor”

  
  


“No good guard is in way. Will see, alert others.” Mole mumbled.

  
  


He was about to offer up a suggestion as to how they could sneak by without being seen, but before he could even open his mouth, Hacker lifted his fingers to his own, and he whistled sharply, instantly catching the guard’s attention. The man caught just a glimpse of the two thieves lurking around the corner before Hacker quickly pushed Mole back, and he held up the wrench before shoving it in Mole’s hand. “deleteguarddotexe”

  
  


Mole stared down at the heavy tool in his hand for a moment, but he could hear the guard shuffling closer to see who it was who had whistled like that, so he set his hammer down and gripped the wrench tight in his hand. When the guard came through the little door to the security booth he had been tucked away in, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw the two of them, and before he could give little more than a shout and only begin to reach for his gun, Mole had made quick work of him. He swung the wrench right at the man’s head, sending him crumbling to the ground.

  
  


Hacker ducked around Mole, running ahead once more as he tried the door they needed to get through. As expected it was locked up tight when he yanked on the handles, so with a quiet curse under his breath, he grabbed his lock pick again and set to work on getting it open. He could break into any computer system in the world, but he was still just as stumped by a solid, physical door as he had been when he started his life of crime. It wasn’t made any easier by the worrying sound of people rushing around just on the other side, and when he heard heavy footsteps rapidly approaching from the far side of the door, his eyes widened and he froze in place as a million escape plans flooded his mind all at once.

  
  


In the middle of trying to pick the lock, the door was opened by a guard passing through, and Hacker was hit in the forehead by had wood and knocked flat on his ass. The guard that had come through, already on edge with a pistol at the ready, stopped in his tracks when he saw Hacker. He was a sitting duck, an easy target that the guard didn’t hesitate to raise his gun to. Hacker panicked, scrambling back and kicking at the floor with his heels to try and get away but the gun stayed trained on him. For a moment he could picture himself dead on the ground, bullet through his head or worse, the thought that got his head racing more than anything; one of him being dragged back kicking and screaming to the padded cell he had only just escaped from.

  
  


“fuck _fuckfuc-_ ” He cursed to himself, before having his words choked off as he was yanked back by his hood, and his zipper damn near cut into his throat. He kicked and reached up to fight as he was dragged back around the corner and sent sliding across the floor a short ways, and the last thing he could see before the wall blocked his line sight was the guard’s face shifting from cocky determination to surprise, and even worry as Mole stepped out to put himself between Hacker and the man threatening to kill him.

  
  


Hacker coughed loudly, his eyes watering as he rubbed at his sore throat, and despite the amount of air he was frantically sucking down with each breath, he felt completely winded right then. When a gunshot went off, the found made Hacker jolt in his place before he gathered his wits and rushed to get to his feet so he could have a half decent chance at whatever came his way. He looked behind himself, back down the hall and made sure nobody was coming that would block his way if he had to run, and despite the loud bang that had sounded before, nobody came rushing.

  
  


When he turned to step forward again, he nearly ran into Mole as he rounded the corner, and seeing the man there when the space had been empty before made him feel like his heart might have stopped for a moment. He was startled so badly that his first instinct, an understandable one given the fact that there were people who might want him dead around every corner, was to throw a quick punch at Mole before he had time to recognize who he was.

  
  


Luckily for them both Mole’s reflexes were fairly quick, and before Hacker could land the hit, Mole had dropped the guard he was dragging behind him and reached up to grab Hacker’s wrist. He held it tightly in place even after Hacker’s eyes had gone wide as he realized who he had just tried to attack, and he began to sheepishly try and tug his wrist away from Mole to free himself. Mole just took a moment to look at the fist that had come close to hitting him, then with a frown he looked down at Hacker.

  
  


“What happened to Sneak Squad?” Mole asked.

  
  


“bitrusty” Hacker admitted, and he stumbled back a little when Mole finally released his wrist just as he had been yanking on it. He rubbed at it for a moment, before Mole offered him the wrench back. He made a bit of a face at the blood splattered on the tool before begrudgingly taking it off of Mole’s hands.

  
  


“Mole not care for violence.” Mole said lowly, looking down at one of the two guards he had bludgeoned to death before he turned towards the door Hacker had been struggling to unlock before things started going to hell.

  
  


“ohyeah” Hacker asked. “prettygoodatitthough”

  
  


“Mole does what Mole has to in order to survive. Entire crew does. Mole knows Hacker does too, no different than other dirty criminals.” Mole said, trying the door and finding that it now unlocked thanks to the guard that had passed through. “Mole will kill if necessary. Mole prefer to dig though.”

  
  


“rememberthefirstkill” Hacker asked, and for a moment Mole couldn’t tell if he should have been offended or simply surprised that Hacker would ask such a personal question. It didn’t really matter one way or another though.

  
  


“Too well.” Mole said, giving him the simplest answer he could before he stepped through the door.

  
  


Hacker followed after Mole as they headed out over the sky bridge that connected one half of the floor to the other. He gave a low, impressed whistle as he looked back at the bodies they had left behind. “nothinglessfromaneanderthal” He said, a small grin appearing on his face before he nudged Mole playfully, the larger man looking down at Hacker with a confused look on his face.

  
  


“…Mole not understand what neanderthal is…” He said.

  
  


“cavemanbruteapeetc” Hacker said with a dismissive wave of his hand before he passed Mole on his way to the door across from them.

  
  


“Small Criminal wants to end up like dead guards.” Mole all but growled, and his reaction only made Hacker’s coy smile grow wider.

  
  


“catchmeifyoucan” He said before trotting off ahead and pushing past the door.

  
  


Mole followed after him, and he had just stepped into the hallway when static came over both his and Hacker’s headsets once again, and Mole stopped where he stood to listen to whoever wanted to speak up, while Hacker moved to get at another outlet he had spotted almost as soon as he stepped through the door.

  
  


‘ _Hacker, Mole, Cleaner and I took care of the ground floor, we’re coming up to grab whatever we can and take care of a few guards for you while we’re at it. Are you two making any progress?_ ’ Lookout asked, her voice sounded rough, like she had just run up a flight of stairs to escape some danger down on the floor below them.

  
  


“comingupontarget” Hacker confirmed, still staring down at his phone as he stood up and motioned for Mole to follow him. “getinroombaddabingbaddaboom”

  
  


‘ _That easy?_ ’ Lookout asked, sounding skeptical about any information Hacker was feeding her.

  
  


“probablylotsoflasers” Hacker mused. “easyifmoledoesnttripthem”

  
  


“Why Hacker think Mole would trip laser again?” Mole asked, his voice filled with indignation as he adjusted his grip on Freedom Spoon and followed behind Hacker.

  
  


“gottahavegracetodealwithlasers” Hacker said with a shrug.

  
  


“Mole is plenty graceful.” Mole said firmly.

  
  


Hacker was quiet for a beat as they walked before he looked up at Mole, a rather confused expression on his face, like he didn’t quite believe he’d actually just heard Mole say that. “sawyouwalkintoadoorframethismorning…”

  
  


Mole ducked his head down just a little, reaching up to pull his hardhat a little farther down over his eyes as embarrassment flooded through him. He didn’t think anyone had seen that, but Hacker had been proving since day one that he seemed to have eyes everywhere…

  
  


“Mole is plenty graceful…” Mole repeated, quieter this time, like he was trying to convince himself rather than Hacker.

  
  


“ksurewhateveryousay” Hacker said, rolling his eyes before looking back down to his phone.

  
  


“Not important. Where Hacker want Mole to dig?” Mole asked, eager to change the subject and get the job done and over with.

  
  


“ahh….” Hacker stopped in his tracks for a moment, eyes scanning over every camera he had access to via his phone as his viruses ran rampant through the system. “…safetoleftlaserdownguardnotlooking” He said, jabbing a thumb towards a door on his left, then pointing up ahead. “accessterminalsaheadlaserseverywhere…” He said, and there was a short pause from him before he looked up at Mole. “notsureonguardstherewatchyoursix”

  
  


“Hacker want Mole to get safe?” Mole asked reaching up to scratch his chin as he looked towards the door, and Hacker nodded.

  
  


“yeahyeahyeah” Hacker said, though he was quiet for a moment after that, biting his lip in thought before he nodded and quickly pocketed his phone to begin pushing roughly at Mole to try and get him towards the door. “gowontlastforever”

  
  


Mole let Hacker steer him towards the door, and when he twisted the handle he found it to be unlocked, so he took a cautious peek inside the room. Just as Hacker had said, there was a guard standing at the far end of the room, and across from him he could see the safe that Hacker had been talking about. There was a laser beside him as well, sweeping slowly back and forth as if to scan the room, but there was no beam, only a small green light flashing on the side of it to indicate it was under Hacker’s control.

  
  


He held his breath and stepped into the room, eyes darting to the guard for half a second before he quickly made his way over to the safe. Over the years he had gotten better and better at cracking these things, getting faster at it with practice and skills to know what to look and listen for, and this one looked to be about as standard as they came. He pulled his lock pick out from the small pouch he had taken to wearing on his belt during heists, and he knelt down in front of the safe to work on getting it open.

  
  


It wasn’t going to take long at all, but when Mole was close to having it open, a loud bang sounded from somewhere out in the hall, and he jumped so badly he nearly dropped his lock pick. He kept his grip tight and he looked back towards the door before his eyes flashed towards the guard in the room with him. The man turned towards the door to look at it as well, obviously wondering what was happening out there that would cause such a ruckus, just like Mole was. Luckily Mole seemed to be just out of range of his peripheral vision, and all he had to do was stay still and quiet.

  
  


It only took a moment for the guard to lose interest in the noise he had heard, apparently deciding that if it was something really important, someone else would take care of it. After watching him for a second more, Mole let himself focus back on what he was doing, having lost his place in the middle of opening the safe.

  
  


It didn’t take him anywhere near as long to get it open the second time around, but almost as soon as he swung the door open and reached for the cash inside, there was a high pitched beep, and his hand froze, stuck halfway inside the safe and hovering over valuables. His head whipped around to see the light on the laser flickering frantically from red to green and finally settling back on red, and at last the faint beam shot out from the end of the laser again, running across the length of the room as the little device swept across it.

  
  


Mole was quick to react when he saw the laser coming towards him, scooping up every bit of cash he could and haphazardly dumping it into the bag he had on him, stuffing it down as he stood up and stumbled back towards the door. He nearly tripped over himself as he rushed to avoid the laser’s line of sight, and he wasn’t anywhere near as careful about exiting the room silently as he had been going in, shutting the door with a quick swing. He leaned up against it as he looked up and down the hallway, hoping to find Hacker hard at work injecting more viruses into the system, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead all he found was a door at the end of the hall that had clearly been broken into, the knob beaten and apparently yanked right out of the busted wood.

  
  


So his hack hadn’t worn off, Hacker had just wandered out of range instead of bothering to stick around and make sure Mole got out unscathed.

  
  


Mole ground his teeth together and tightened his grip on Freedom Spook as he stalked towards the door, bound and determined to find where the little goblin had run off to and possibly kick his ass for just leaving him high and dry like that without so much as a word. He pushed through the door Hacker had broken, and immediately his field of vision was flooded with bright red lights, and he had to all but jump back as a laser swept over the spot he had almost stepped into seconds before. It passed by harmlessly enough, though that alone was enough to get Mole’s heart pounding in his chest, and Mole let out a heavy sigh as he surveyed the criss-crossing mess of security laid out before him.

  
  


Hacker _had_ said something about there being lases ahead, hadn’t he?

  
  


“ **Hey!** ” Mole heard a rather gruff voice call out, and he spotted a guard across the room stepping away from the computer he had been hard at work on, his hand already reaching for his gun. “ **You! Stop right there!** ”

  
  


Every fiber in Mole’s being told him to turn and run, that the man was going to shoot at him if he didn’t, and there would be nothing Mole could do to stop him, not from over here. Before he could make his feet move though, movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, a flash of green, and Hacker ran out across the room from his left, apparently having been busy busting into one of the terminals that held the data they needed. He didn’t seem like he had even tried to hide, and of course, the guard had taken notice. The guard wasn’t even looking at Mole.

  
  


The sea of lasers seemed to vanish just before Hacker with every step he took, his viruses working in overtime as they stayed just ahead of him, letting the lasers they had turned off click back on after Hacker was safely out of range as they moved on to the next. It was impressive beyond all belief to Mole, and as he watched as Hacker run carelessly from one terminal to the next, he couldn’t help but once again begin to wonder how he did what he did. Hacker seemed hyper focused on what he was doing, the shouts from the guard not fazing him in the slightest, though when he looked up and spotted Mole he quickly began to point at a door on the far end of the room.

  
  


“digdigdig _bustitopen_ ” Hacker ordered, raising his voice enough to be heard over the shouting from the guard, who had left his security booth and come around the corner. Hacker looked over his shoulder just in time to see the guard taking aim at him, and with a yelp he ducked down, narrowly avoiding being hit as the gun went off and a bullet sailed over his head. When he popped back up, he reached out to grab his phone from where he had it plugged in and ran, only giving Mole a second to realize that he needed to _move_ if he wanted to get through the lasers with Hacker so he didn’t end up tripping every single one and alerting all the other guards on the floor. He gripped his hammer tight and ran as fast as he could after him.

  
  


Hacker made it to the door first, crashing into it and rather violently shaking the door like the lock would open for him if he just wanted it badly enough, but to his disappointment the door wouldn’t yield to him.

  
  


“ **Move!** ” Mole yelled, and Hacker looked back at him to see the large man raising his sledge hammer and taking a hard swing towards the door. Hacker had to leap to the side to avoid getting caught in the blow. His eyes widened as he watched the hammer slam into the door and shatter the wood, fast and hard enough that he thought to himself for a second that Mole must have been at least slightly superhuman, being able to lift something that large and heavy and use it to _destroy_ something…

  
  


It was scary, but he couldn’t look away.

  
  


In the middle of a swing, a gunshot sounded, and Mole he swore he felt something hit his hammer, but it didn’t stop the forward momentum he had and he hit the door hard. When he looked up at the guard, the gun was aimed right at them, and he knew this guard was going to shoot to kill. Mole didn’t hesitate to grab Hacker from where he had ducked down, pulling him close and wrapping an arm tight around him before he threw both of their weight up against the heavily damaged door and they went crashing through it, tumbling to the ground hard just as the guard fired off his gun again.

  
  


“whatthefuckwhereami” Hacker groaned as they settled, dazed and confused as he pushed at Mole’s arms and tried to look around. His confusion didn’t last long though, as a shadow fell over the both of them when the guard stepped into the room and stared down at them. His gun was reloaded, cocked, and he had it aimed right down at Mole’s head.

  
  


“Stay down.” The guard ordered, and for a few tense moments nobody made a sound, nobody moved an inch, and neither Mole nor Hacker so much as breathed.

  
  


‘ _Mole? Hacker? I could hear gunshots, what’s going on over there? Are you two OK?_ ’ Lookout asked.

  
  


The guard narrowed his eyes at both of them, then he stepped a little closer, kneeling down and looking at the headset Mole was wearing. The barrel of his pistol had been pressed right against Mole’s forehead, and with a small growl Mole turned his head to look away from the guard, slowly but surely lifting his arms away from Hacker and his hammer to put them up in a sigh of surrender. The guard seemed apprehensive about even that small bit of movement, pressing the gun a little harder against his skin as he looked between him and Hacker, who had stayed impressively still and silent, before he reached for Mole’s headset.

  
  


‘ _Hello? Guys?!_ ’ Lookout asked again when she got no response, but neither man could respond to her right then and she was left in the dark.

  
  


The guard stood up with the headset in hand, looking it over a few times and even placing it close to his ear to listen to Lookout’s worried voice come over the line. His gun, while no longer pressed against Mole’s face, he still kept a steady aim on him. Mole knew he wouldn’t live through it if he gave the man any reason to shoot, so he bit his time, staring to the side and refusing to look him in the eye. The guard pulled the headset away from his ear with a frown, and instead reached to activate the walkie-talkie he had hanging from the front of his shirt.

  
  


“An alarm went off downstairs, right?” The guard asked. “I’ve got two trespassers here in the southeast wing, floor two. I think they somehow managed to get access to the system, not sure how much damage has been done just yet…” He said, and neither of them could quite make out the response the guard got back, the static over the walkie-talkie being too much for the two of them.

  
  


And really, even if they had been able to hear, neither of them really cared what anyone there had to say to begin with…

  
  


“I’ve got them subdued…” The guard said, and he listened to the static before frowning. “You… want me to bring them down by myself? Are you sure?”

  
  


Hacker grit his teeth in frustration as he watched the guard talk about what to do with them. The man was afraid of them, and really Hacker believed that he had every reason to be. He crept his hand down towards the pocket of his hoodie, feeling his fingers brush against cold, hard metal, and he wrapped them firmly around the handle of the wrench he had tucked away. The blood splattered on it’s surface wasn’t too pleasant, but a good tool like this still had a few uses left in it.

  
  


He swung the wrench at the guard’s leg, and while he wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Mole, a heavy tool could still deal some heavy damage, and the guard threw his head back as he yelled in pain. The hand he had been holding the gun jerked up, pulling the trigger on reflex and firing off into the ceiling. Maybe he had just tried to shoot Mole, but the pain from his leg fracturing and nearly breaking as it was struck hard with metal ruined any focus and aim he had.

  
  


Mole was stunned, eyes wide and staring ahead at a wall as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. He wasn’t sure if he had been saved, or shot and his brain simply hadn’t finished dying yet. As he collected his wits he turned his head to face the scuffle taking place only inches from him. The guard, barely standing with his leg all but ruined, raised his gun to take aim at Hacker as he jumped to his feet. Before the guard could take proper aim he was knocked to the ground with a wrench to the face, the gun falling from his hands with a loud clatter as Hacker stepped over him and raised the wrench high above his head. Mole could only see Hacker’s back from where he was still laid out on the floor, so he didn’t see the worst of it when Hacker brought the wrench down on the guard’s head with as much force as he could muster. He repeated the action two more times, panting as he did so, before he finally, slowly, lowered the wrench to his side as he stared down at the dead guard at his feet.

  
  


His grip on it was shaking, and his shoulders heaving slightly as he took in several shaky breathes. Then, with a frustrated growl he turned and threw the wrench across the room, not caring about the loud crash it caused.

  
  


“asshole…” He muttered, reaching up to wipe at his face, a few specks of blood having ended up dotting his cheeks during his take down. Most of it ended up on his hoodie in small streaks and a sort of light mist, but it was nasty all the same and he hated it. After he wiped the blood off hid face and nothing remained, he looked down at Mole and let out a slow, heavy sigh through his nose to calm himself down before he offered him a hand.

  
  


“guesswereeven” He asked quietly, only sounding slightly hopeful.

  
  


Mole didn’t even know what to say. Sure, as far as he knew everyone in the crew had killed someone during a heist. Every recount he had heard about though had been a situation of self defense. Kill or be killed. The people he worked with weren’t going to go down without a fight. The only ones in the group Mole knew had killed someone without being physically under attacked was Gentleman, and himself at Gentleman’s call. It wasn’t something any of them enjoyed though, not even talking about it. Even Cleaner, who had time and time again shown that he took pleasure in hurting the people they stole from, had expressed how difficult actually taking lives could be for him the few times they had ever gotten any information out of the man.

  
  


He thought back to what Hacker had asked him only a short while ago, if he remembered the first person he killed. Now he couldn’t help but wonder what Hacker’s first time had been like, and what sort of marks it had left on him. Either way it obviously hadn’t gotten any easier for him over time…

  
  


Hacker had saved him though. Mole reached up to take Hacker’s hand, letting the smaller man help him get to his feet, and he opened his mouth to thank him, but he stopped as one thought crossed his mind. He wouldn’t have even needed saving in the first place if Hacker had just done as he was told and stayed by Mole’s side instead of running off ahead to cause trouble. They could have worked out a way to sneak around the guard without ever being detected. It was his fault they had ended up in that situation in the first place.

  
  


“Not even close.” Mole said with a shake of his head, and Hacker scoffed, letting go of his hand once Mole was on his feet, and without looking down at the body he had just created he had a look around the room. His eyes lit up a little and he clapped his hands together in a pleased manner when he spotted the final terminal he needed to access only a few feet away. Mole grabbed his headset from where it had been dropped on the floor and put it back on.

  
  


“twodownonetogo” Hacker said as he pulled his phone out and stepped over to the terminal to get to work on deleting the necessary files.

  
  


‘ _Wow, OK, I had started to think you guys had bit the dust._ ’ Lookout said. ‘ _Cleaner and I have the place cleaned out and locked down pretty tight over here. He can keep most of the guards asleep, you two just need to get back over here._ ’

  
  


“backintoyourwaitingarms” Hacker said, and he made kissy noises to accentuate his words. Lookout made a noise of vague disgust in response.

  
  


‘ _Right. By the way, Hacker, if you ever lick me again I’ll drive you right back to that asylum myself, got it?_ ’ Lookout warned.

  
  


“watchyourtongueibitetoo” Hacker growled, his mood and tone taking an instant dip, and honestly Mole could understand why.

  
  


“Not time for this.” Mole said, hoping to stop any arguments before they could break out, even if they were stupid petty ones. He felt both were crossing a line in one way or another, but it wasn’t something that needed to be said when they were deep in the heart of the Securitech building. “Hacker busy deleting files.”

  
  


“deletedalreadydonepickupthepace” Hacker said unplugging his phone. His voice should have been filled with pride as he completed his job, but his mood had been stunted by what Lookout had said to him. “headingbacktostairs.”

  
  


“ _Whoa, wait wait, meet us in the server room, we’ll head back together._ ” Lookout said.

  
  


“k” Hacker said curtly, before turning to face Mole, who was looking down at him with a bit of a frown on his face, though he obviously wasn’t angry with him like he had been before. Mole’s expression was hard to place, and Hacker didn’t try very hard, just flashing a smile and scooting close to nudge him with his elbow.

  
  


“jobwelldoneyeah” He asked, before motioning for Mole to follow after him, his viruses illuminating the quickest path across to the server room where the other half of their team was waiting for them.

  
  


Mole’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and naturally his first response would have been ‘ _No_ ’ under any normal circumstance. In his opinion it had been a mess. Not the worst situation he had ever been caught in, but ending up with a gun against his head and nearly taken into custody didn’t exactly make him feel like he should have been celebrating. Just because the heist was successful didn’t mean that they had done a good job. If Hacker’s idea of a job well done was simply completing the task and making it out alive, Mole knew for a fact he didn’t want to work with him again.

  
  


Hacker noticed the look on Mole’s face though, and his own expression turned to one of disappointment, his shoulders slumping a bit as they walked. “dontthinkso” He asked. “messybutnotraceleftbehind”

  
  


Mole didn’t say anything, following Hacker around a few corners as they passed through the security booth, and when they came to an alarm door, Hacker didn’t hesitate to push through it. He did hang his head a little though, still rambling idly to Mole as they went, and the more he talked, the more Mole felt his resolve break and any irritation he felt towards the man dissipate.

  
  


“wantedtodogoodmaybebekeptaroundthistime”

  
  


Mole let out a small sigh, Hacker’s words getting to him far more than he ever should have let them, leaving him with a feeling of guilt, even if it wasn’t really his place to feel like that. With his free hand he reached out to playfully shove the brim of Hacker’s baseball cap farther down over his face. Hacker snickered and reached up to shove at Mole’s hand before looking up at him to see what he had to say.

  
  


“Small Criminal did good work.” Mole said, and he watched Hacker’s face light up with a small, toothy smile. “First heist in years, bound to be rough. Did good, now leaving alive. Small Criminal will get better.”

  
  


“yeahyeah” Hacker said, now with a bit of a bounce in his step as he crossed the hall and pushed a second alarm door open. “norunningoffwithoutmybatteringram” He said, winking at Mole before stepping out.

  
  


Mole reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he followed Hacker out onto the sky bridge, contemplating how much trouble he might get in if he threw Hacker over the edge.

  
  


They made their way across to the server room, and when they stepped through the door, both Lookout and Cleaner were waiting for them, with Lookout sat against the wall, and Cleaner leaning against one of the massive computers in the room. Lookout jumped up almost instantly, looking ready to run, but she saw it was just her teammates and relaxed.

  
  


“Job’s done?” Lookout asked.

  
  


“Evidence gone, no risk of recognition.” Mole said, giving the woman a small nod.

  
  


“Good, we don’t need our face plastered everywhere, and we certainly don’t need this Davide fella hunting us all down…” She mumbled, before reaching up to her headset to open up the airways a bit more. “Gentleman? It’s done, we’re headed down. Warm the car for us.”

  
  


‘ _It’s all gone?_ ’ Gentleman asked.

  
  


“nothingleftbehind” Hacker said with a proud grin on his face. “exceptabackdoorjustincase”

  
  
‘ _Marvelous job all of you. Take care as you come down, no use getting sloppy now. I’ll be waiting._ ’ Gentleman instructed before the com link cut out.

  
  


Cleaner was the one to take the initiative to lead them back down, waving at the others to follow after him, and Mole watched as Hacker quickly took up a spot at his side. He jokingly made a comment about how they had matching bloodstains before asking him what the best way to remove the stains from his clothes would be. Of course he was met with silence, though Cleaner did take a moment to reach out and pinch at the fabric of Hacker’s hoodie, rubbing it between his fingers like he was trying to figure out what materiel it was.

  
  


Mole felt a nudge at his side that pulled his attention away from the two, and he looked down to Lookout, who had opted to walk at his side instead. She reached up and muted her headset, before reaching up with a delicate hand to do the same to Mole’s, ignoring his hesitance on such an action.

  
  


“You didn’t kill him.” She observed after she brought her hand back down.

  
  


“Mole was never going to.” Mole said, unsure as to why Lookout had decided to cut this conversation off from the others.

  
  


“Did he give you a lot of trouble?” Lookout asked, her eyes locked on the others as they walked, only looking away to step over one of the many unconscious guards that Cleaner had left lying around like they were nothing.

  
  


“…Small Criminal is fine when at Mole’s side. Problem is when Small Criminal leaves side.” Mole said, and from the corner of his eye he could see Lookout looking up at him, waiting for an explanation. “Mole not think Small Criminal is bad thief. Not bad Teammate. Mole thinks Small Criminal works differently than other dirty criminals, on job and off.”

  
  


“That’s all fine and good, but if I’m going to trust someone to have my back in the heat of the moment… well, you worked with him tonight? Do you think we can trust him? I don’t entirely trust Gentleman’s word on him alone….” Lookout said.

  
  


Mole was quiet after she asked that, and while Mole had never claimed to be the smartest man on the team, he knew crime like the back of his hand, and the types of people that came with it. He thought back to the shit that Hacker had pulled that evening, and the things he had said to him after it was all said and done. How he protected Mole when his life was on the line… Something about it all didn’t quite sit right with him, though not in a way that made him weary of the man. It just made him uncomfortable.

  
  


“Mole… trusts Hacker to do what need to be done for team to survive. Hacker make sure we come out alive, like rest of team would.” He said slowly, choosing is words carefully as he spoke. “Mole thinks Lookout not need to worry, Hacker is good teammate, even if hard to get along with, hard to understand…”

  
  


Lookout stared at Mole for a few moments as they walked, the stairs back down drawing closer as they trailed behind the others, and after a short silence between the two, she nodded and stepped ahead of him. “If you think so, I can’t say I care for him at all. His personality, or his wild-card attitude to all of this…. But if you think he can be worked with, I suppose even he deserves a chance. We’ll just have to keep him on a very tight leash. After all, It’s my job to watch over everyone…” She said, before she reached up to unmute her headset. “Thanks for the input.” She said, before following the other two down the stairs.

  
  


It took Mole a minute, but as he started down the stairs after everyone else, he too reached up to unmute his headset, and he could once again hear and be heard by the others, but he said nothing to any of them. Instead he kept quiet, following the path that had been created by both Lookout and Cleaner out towards the car that Gentleman had parked outside on the ground floor just for them.

  
  


He’d been worse than Lookout years ago, hardly trusting Hacker to breathe the same air as him, believing he’d do nothing but cause trouble for them in the end. He… hadn’t been entirely wrong, Hacker had turned out to be as much of a nuisance to work with as he was to fight for the short time they had worked together. In that time though, Hacker had never once shown an inkling of disloyalty towards the gentleman, or anyone else in his crew for that matter, even if he didn’t get along with everyone wonderfully. Even now, through all the bitter resentment Hacker seemed to hold for Gentleman, Mole could still see the loyalty he held to a fault for him shine through.

  
  


Mole didn’t know _why_ though. It didn’t make any sense. It only confused him more and stirred the uneasy feeling he had deep in his gut.

  
  


Mole might not have gotten along with Hacker. The guy might have gotten under his skin despite Mole’s best attempts to keep his cool. Working with him might have been one of the most stressful things he had gone through in a long time.

  
  


But for some reason Mole trusted him with his, and the rest of the crew’s lives.

  
  


He _hated_ that fact.

 


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trust VS Respect

Whether a heist went well, or was a disaster that ended with more than a few bumps and bruises, the mood in the group’s hotel suite right after a job was rarely a good one. Most of the teams, the ones that had been out and about anyway, came back tired and in pain from either injuries or aching muscles and fatigue. Someone was often hurt, someone was always upset with someone else, and nobody ever wanted to talk about what had gone down directly afterwards. Unless they saved the discussions until after everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep and the money had been counted, there tended to be more harsh words and blame being passed for anything that had gone on than anything else.

 

Of course, when you left two of your crew behind to keep an eye on the hotel, questions tended to be thrown at the returning thieves as soon as the elevator doors opened and let them all spill out into the suite.

 

Tonight it was locksmith who first questioned how things had gone. He, along with Pickpocket, had been the two selected to sit this particular heist out, despite the fact that Locksmith had displayed quite the interest in seeing just how Hacker would work in their dynamic. It was a mission that they couldn’t very well have come back _unsuccessful_ from, not with what was at stake, but that didn’t exactly mean things had gone _well…_

 

“Anyone need patching up?” Locksmith offered first and foremost. It was the easiest way to gauge whether or not things had gone in their favor, and to be honest it was a necessary question. Cleaner raised his hand and halfheartedly waved the first aid kit he had gripped in his hand. His other arm hung rather uselessly at his side as he made his way over to the couch where Locksmith had been sitting when they all trudged in.

 

“He took a bullet on the way out.” Locksmith said, merely passing by as she and the other made their way towards the small but convenient kitchen area their suite provided them with. “He wouldn’t let any of us touch him, looks like it hit him in a pretty nasty spot though.” She mumbled.

 

“I doubt he wanted any of us poking around in his back while in a speeding vehicle.” Gentleman said. “I can’t really say I blame him either, especially with who all was sitting in the back with him.

 

“We tripped an alarm, guards rushed us last second.” Lookout explained when Locksmith gave her a questioning look. She raised her hand for Mole to toss her a bottled water as he grabbed a few from the fridge, catching it easily and taking a long drink from it that left the bottle almost half empty in her hands by the time she pulled the bottle away with a heavy breath. She wiped her mouth and pointed towards Hacker with an almost accusatory look on her face. “I thought the whole reason we brought the little weirdo along with us was to _keep_ shit like that from happening...”

 

“hackernotamiracleworker” Hacker snapped at her, a slight sneer on her face as he cracked his own bottle of water open before flicking the cap at her.

 

“Yeah? Well with the kind of crap your boss has us doing we _need_ a damn miracle worker.” Lookout muttered.

 

“cleanerstoughwalkitoff” Hacker said with a small shrug, glancing over to where Cleaner had sat himself down on the couch with his shirt off to let Locksmith dig around in his back. Most of the time the silent man was in charge of first aid, including his own, but he couldn’t exactly reach around with a pair of tweezers to dig a bullet out of his own back. “tisbutafleshwound”

 

“And what about when it’s not a flesh wound?” Gentleman asked, stepping around the counter towards the cabinets to reach up and grab a glass. The tone in his voice and the way he seemed to be, rather surprisingly, siding with Lookout made Hacker lower his eyes to the ground, picking at the wrapper his bottle like a child about to be scolded by a parent. “What about when it’s a gun pressed right against your teammate’s forehead? Or even your own? What would you suggest then, Hacker?”

 

“useawrench” Hacker mumbled, glancing up for half a second when he heard Mole give a slightly amused snort at his answer. He quickly lowered them again when he heard the cabinet door all but slam shut as Gentleman turned towards him now. “didmybestgetoffmyback”

 

“If that was your best then I don’t know what I was ever thinking when I broke you free from that padded cell of yours.” Gentleman said with a brutally sharp tone in his voice that clearly cut Hacker deep, almost making him seem to cower before the man. “It almost seems as if time in that asylum’s made you lose your touch...”

 

“andwholeftmethere” Hacker demanded with a growl, a harsh glare just barely visible under the brim of the hat that he seemed to be all but hiding behind. Despite his stance making him look like a wounded dog, there was a sudden burst of anger behind his eyes that surprised all three thieves in the kitchen.

 

A short but heavy silence fell over the group, and all eyes were on Gentleman. Mole couldn’t watch for long though, turning his head and sipping at his water while Gentleman shifted from one foot to the other. It didn’t take much to lower the tension in the room just a little; just a quick and painfully blatant change of subject as Gentleman turned his gaze towards Cleaner without so much as gracing Hacker with a response.

 

“How does he look, Locksmith? Is he going to be out of the job for a long while?” Gentleman asked.

 

“He never is, no matter how bad it is.” Locksmith said, quickly turning his attention back to the bullet wound on Cleaner’s back. He had paused in the middle of his work in anticipation for the harsh words between Gentleman and Hacker turning a bit more hostile, but so far Cleaner hadn’t so much as grimaced while he worked, so he wasn’t exactly concerned about leaving the man in pain. “And Hacker’s right, it’s really not as bad as I first thought it was going to be.”

 

“Good… He’ll have a few weeks to rest up and heal, I don’t feel I would have needed him for our next stop anyway.” Gentleman said.

 

“What, you already have another mission planned for us?” Lookout asked with a frown, subconsciously rubbing at a sore spot on her thigh that she knew was going to turn an ugly purpleish green color from a hard blow she had taken from a guard’s flashlight. “I know we’re in a hurry to get out of here, but damn we need more time between jobs than that...”

 

“It’s not a mission for you. It’s a little more personal, something I wouldn’t trust someone I’ve only met so recently with. I’m more than happy to work with you in our mutual goal of fleeing from Monaco, but my past is not your business and I don’t plan on getting you or your friends involved with it.” Gentleman said, and he looked to Mole and then to Hacker before speaking again. “I’ll be sending you two, Hacker, Mole, I trust you can both handle a museum without backup, _oui_?”

 

“A museum?” Locksmith muttered, a bit of a confused look on his face, but none of the others really paid his quiet words any mind.

 

“You were _just_ telling Hacker how big a disappointment he is, how the hell is he one of the ones you want to send in to deal with whatever mistakes you’ve made?” Lookout asked with an incredulous look on her face.

 

“Just because he has disappointed me tonight doesn’t mean that I don’t believe he can do this.” Gentleman said. “I’ve known Hacker fro quite some time now, and he’s never come back to me without finishing a job, and this is not one that I can have hanging over my head...”

 

“biteme” Hacker muttered, pushing off the counter he had been leaned again, and he quickly turned on heal and left the kitchen, heading back towards the relative safety of his room where he could hide away from the others.

 

“My room in an hour, Hacker. You too Mole, I want to brief the both of you on what you’ll be doing at our next destination so we can have time to formulate how we’ll actually be getting you inside...” Gentleman said, not even glancing back at Hacker as he left. He didn’t get a response from him, but he knew the man had heard him well enough.

 

“An hour?” Locksmith asked, speaking up this time as he looked away from Cleaner’s wound once again. “Don’t you think you ought to give them some time to rest up? Least give them the night, not like they haven’t already had a hard one it seems...”

 

“Locksmith, you of all people should know that the law waits for no one, and until this next task is handled I will run the risk of having the law finally catch up with me. It would be good for none of us if that were to happen, so it’s imperative that we act quickly. They can rest on the information I have for them.” Gentleman said, and he looked between the remaining thieves before giving a small nod and turning to start back towards his own room for the time being. “The rest of you should do what you can to relax. We’ve taken good steps toward our goal of freedom tonight, it’s only a matter of time now...” He said, glancing back over his shoulder briefly before leaving.

 

All at once a good deal of the tension that seemed to have been hanging over the room while Gentleman was present simply faded away, and Lookout heaved a small sigh as she leaned back against the counter to sip her water. There was a silence over the group for a few short moments as she simply stared ahead, before she slowly began to shake her head, her eyes glazed over as she got lost in thought. “He’s a mad man….” She muttered.

 

“Yeah, I think that’s why we had to pull him out of a nut-house….” Locksmith said with a small hum as he worked on Cleaner.

 

“What?” Lookout asked, her brows furrowing in confusion before she quickly shook her head and turned to look over the counter at Locksmith and Cleaner. “No, not-… I mean The Gentleman.” She said.

 

“No, Gentleman is mastermind.” Mole said, finally speaking up. “Reason Gentleman is boss...”

 

“Big Guy’s right, Lookout.” Locksmith said, his tongue poking just past his lips as he taped down a bandage over Cleaner’s wound before giving him a few quick pats on the back and closing the med kit. Cleaner quickly pulled his button up back on before the two of them stood and made their way into the kitchen to join them. “How many people have you worked with who can actually plan out a job like he can?”

 

“I’ve never needed to before now.” Lookout said. “And I don’t see what makes him think he’s in charge here, why he thinks he gets to decide who stays and who goes on jobs, on _what_ jobs we do...”

 

“Uhh… The boat?” Locksmith said with a small shrug, wiping his bloody hands off on what had once been a pristine white wash cloth.

 

“At first, sure.” Lookout admitted. “But in case you don’t remember, his boat _blew up_. Then he tricked us into breaking his _actual_ mad man of a Computer Technician out of a mental ward before we had even had time to dry off from our swim at the fucking docks. It’s bad enough we had to go and deal with security tapes because his past is coming back to haunt him and we’re caught in the mix, but now he wants to continue acting like he’s the leader when he really doesn't have any sort of leverage over us anymore...”

 

“Lookout not have to stay.” Mole said simply, abruptly, setting his water bottle down on the counter a little harder than probably intended. “Lookout can go. Lookout not find anyone better to smuggle out of country, even without boat. If Lookout not like how Gentleman do things, Lookout can go. Lookout _should_ go...”

 

Lookout had flinched a little when Mole had started to raise his voice with her, and she shifted in her spot as the large man stared her down with a fire in his eyes she didn’t often see. “I just have trouble seeing this fuck up of a situation we have ourselves in working out in the end. Not with the way he’s leading us.”

 

“Gentleman said would smuggle Dirty Criminals out, Gentleman always keeps Promises.” Mole said lowly, large arms crossed over his chest as he spoke. “Gentleman clean up own mess first, then clean up Dirty Criminal’s mess. Dirty Criminals wait, not be disappointed.”

 

“How are we supposed to trust him?!” Lookout asked, frustration clear in her voice as she waved her hands off in the direction that Hacker had slunk off in. “His own henchman doesn’t trust him for shit!”

 

“Hacker _Respect_ Gentleman.” Mole assured. “More than enough for jobs.”

 

“Sure as hell doesn’t seem like it...” Locksmith said with a snort, before shaking his head and waving his hands dismissively. “Whatever, alright? Not tonight guys, you both look exhausted, and talking about all of this right now isn’t going to do anyone any favors. You should do like Gentleman suggested and just try to relax for the evening.”

 

“I feel like we’ll never talk about it if not right now...” Lookout muttered with a defeated tone in her voice, seeming totally drained right then. She gave a small sigh and pushed away from the counter with a small nod though, and moved towards Locksmith to pat him on his arm as she passed by. “You’re right though… all we’d do is fight.”

 

“We’re lucky one hasn’t broken out yet.” Locksmith said.

 

“Well, the night’s young...” Lookout said bitterly, before giving a tired wave over her shoulder as she too started for the quiet seclusion of her bedroom. “Enjoy your briefing, Mole, I hope whatever grunt work he’s got planned for you and Hacker is worth it...” She said.

 

Mole of course could hear the bitter sarcasm in her words, but he said nothing as she spoke, simply letting his eyes dart between both Cleaner and Locksmith after she was out of sight, and he waited half a beat before he grabbed his water bottle again and turned to leave without another word. Locksmith did open his mouth to say something, but Mole quickly and quietly left the room before he could so much as utter a word to him, leaving Cleaner and Locksmith to stare after him in silence.

 

* * *

 

The suite they had was absolutely breathtaking, but a bit smaller than the last one they had been in. Mole hadn’t exactly been counting, but this was either their fourth or fifth that they had stayed in since they’d rescued Gentleman from his own home as they could never stay in one hotel for too long. People started to make connections, started to recognize their silhouettes from the few blurry news photos that cropped up on TV from time to time, and so after enjoying their time in the high life for a few luxurious days, maybe even a week or two, they would pack up their belongings and find the next five start hotel they could hold up in for a while. They wouldn’t be staying in their current one for much longer, and honestly Mole was fine with that, because really it felt a little too cramped for his comfort.

 

Of course it didn’t help that they had picked up an old member, and now their crew outnumbered the private rooms they had available to them there.

 

At first Mole had been worried that Gentleman would stick Hacker in his room, insist that they share since they had worked in the general vicinity of each other rears ago and hadn’t managed to kill each other. Instead, much to Mole’s delight, he’d simply insisted that Locksmith give up his room, and had him move out to sleep on the couch at night for the time being, and Hacker had happily made himself right at home in what had been someone else’s room. Luckily for them all, Hacker seemed perfectly content to spend 18 hours a day locked away in there, and most of the time they didn’t even hear a peep out of him when he _did_ come out.

 

It still made things pretty awkward when any of them wanted to sit out and watch TV when Locksmith just wanted to get some shut eye though.

 

Mole ran a hand over his shoulder and let out a deep sigh as he headed towards the large balcony the suite had that looked out over the city, making sure to shut the glass door tightly behind him to tune out any noise that might have come from inside. While Mole might not have been too happy with the current capacity issue they were dealing with at this hotel, he had to admit that the view that was offered was particularly stunning compared to some of the other places they had stayed, even in all his time working with Gentleman. There was a wine bottle and two glasses set out on the balcony’s table in case anyone fancied a drink or two, but Mole simply grabbed the bottle’s neck and got it open before tipping it back against his lips, drinking it straight and without care for anyone else who might have wanted some.

 

Mole couldn’t drink as much as he might have wanted to though, because he didn’t want to run the risk of showing up to Gentleman’s briefing tipsy, even if he felt like the only way he would get through it without a migraine was if he showed up absolutely shitfaced. Mole knew for a fact that the exchange he had seen in the kitchen was likely only a prelude to what he might have to break apart in Gentleman’s room when the two were within arms reach and away from the prying eyes of the other four members. The ones who wouldn’t understand why there was such animosity between the three of them when Gentleman insisted that they worked so well together, that Hacker was loyal to him.

 

The thing that bothered Mole though was that it was true; Hacker _was_ loyal to Gentleman. He was loyal to a _fault_ because he respected Gentleman and everything that the man was capable of doing to or for him. Hacker seemed so absolutely desperate to please Gentleman in a strange way that Mole had never really seen before, even when he had worked with Hacker years before, almost seeming to idolize his uncle, and being reminded so quickly that Gentleman didn’t seem to hold the same sort of respect for him had broken him down faster than Mole could have possibly imagined.

 

Gentleman had always held power over Hacker, and Hacker respected that. Did Hacker _trust_ his uncle? No, not as far as he could throw the man. He just seemed to be hoping to whatever deity might have been watching over him that Gentleman would take pity on him, that he wasn’t falling for the same trap as he did last time, and taking the rough treatment day by day, just trying to make it through.

 

Yet he still smiled, he grinned and giggled and laughed and made stupid jokes just to see the other thieves struggle to hide their own smiles and snickering. He acted like he had nothing to fear until the man he feared the most was getting in his face. It just didn’t make sense to Mole.

 

Mole let out a low groan and bent over to lean against the guard rail that ran along the edge of the balcony, letting his arm hang over with the bottle of wine as he stared out at the glimmering lights of buildings and streetlights in the distance. It didn’t matter much in the end, he knew what Gentleman had planned for the throw-aways they’d promised passage to. The same bitter feelings he always felt when he was to back-stab people he’d been working in close proximity with started to bubbled up, but he couldn’t let it, or his concerns about how Hacker would respond to this whole bait and switch scheme Gentleman had once again cooked up, get to him right then. They still had a long way to go before he would have to worry about that.

 

For the time being he only had to deal with things as he normally would; figuring out how to keep himself alive and out of jail from one night to the next, nothing more, nothing less.

 

When the sliding glass door behind Mole opened and closed again, his fingers twitched on instinct, almost reaching for a hammer that wasn’t at his side. He’d left it leaned against the wall by the elevator when they’d all arrived back from their job, feeling too tired to worry about dragging it through the suite when he could just finally give his arm a break. There wasn’t much for Mole to worry about there anyway. As many potential enemies as he might have had there in the hotel down below, he knew he could relax there in their suite and be at ease with the people around him, at least for the time being.

 

“Tougher night than they like on I’m guessing?” Locksmith asked from behind Mole as he moved around to stand at his side, leaning against the raining and looking out over the city with him. “Hacker bad at his job? Gentleman really didn’t sound too happy with him in there...”

 

“Small Criminal good at job, bad at… everything else...” Mole muttered, thinking for a moment before taking another pull from the wine bottle he had in hand. “Difficult man to work with. Very frustrating, Mole wanted to strangle.”

 

“That bad?” Locksmith asked, grimacing at the thought of what might have gone down to warrant a response like that from a man who, typically, didn’t really speak so negatively about people, much less wish violence on them. “Gotta say, the guy did seem a… well, a bit scatterbrained, to put it lightly. Thought you’d worked with him before though, figured you of all people would know how to handle him.”

 

“Mole worked with Hacker once, briefly. Does not mean Mole know how to handle Small Criminal. Just as frustrating then...” Mole said with a snort and a shake of his head, but the frown on his face grew a little and his brows knit together as he thought back to just what a disaster it had been when he teamed up with Hacker after first meeting him. “...Like Mole said, didn’t work with Small Criminal long...”

 

“Ahh, right, I’m guessing Gentleman had something to do with that?” Locksmith asked, and Mole visibly bristled at his words, lowering his head so as to avoid any risk of eye contact with the man next to him. “Least that’s how it seems to me from what was said back inside...”

 

“Criminal life is dangerous.” Mole said, his tone a bit harsher now, the smallest hint of a growl gracing his voice as he spoke. “Jobs go wrong, teammates left behind, people locked away. Bad things happen to bad people, Dirty Criminals bad people, Hacker no exception.”

 

“Mhmm...” Locksmith nodded slowly as realization about what had happened dawned on him, but something told Mole that he didn’t _really_ grasp just what had gone down. “I mean, you’re right. It’s a risky business we’re working in. Figure as long as you do what you can, nobody can really blame you… sometimes there’s just no helping someone in a bad situation though, right?”

 

“...Right.” Mole said with a small nod, and he ran his thumb over the rim of his bottle a few times before glancing back at Locksmith. “Locksmith has strange personality for criminal...”

 

“Do I?” Locksmith asked, a small grin on his face. “Always have been told I’m too kind for this line of work. I’ll tell you though, anyone who says that has never seen me smash a man’s teeth in before.”

 

“Mole has seen it, still think Locksmith too nice.” Mole said, and Locksmith laughed at his words before reaching up and slapping his hand on Mole’s back a few times as he turned away to head back inside.

 

“Well, just because we’re criminals doesn’t mean that we have to be awful to each other, now does it?” Locksmith asked, before looking back and giving a small wave at Mole. “Good night Mole, get some rest when you can.” He said, before letting the glass door slide shut behind him.

 

Mole tilted his head just a little as he stared down over the edge of the balcony, Locksmith’s words ringing loudly in the new-found silence. He lifted the bottle in his hands to stare at it for a minute, before lifting the rim to his lips once more to take a long pull from it, then rather carelessly tossing it over the edge, down about 30 floors to land who knows where.

 

“Depends who Mole asks…” Mole answered as he too turned back inside, but nobody else was around to hear it.

 

The words still left a bitter taste in his mouth that not even the wine could cover up.

 

* * *

 

The air in Gentleman’s room wasn’t quite as bad as Mole had first predicted it would be, at least not at first as he and Hacker were let in, the door locking behind them as soon as they had passed the threshold. It wasn’t really _good_ though, but at least Hacker had calmed a little from his nearly beaten down cowering, and Gentleman seemed to have relaxed as well. It seemed like, for the time being at least, they were perfectly content to act as though they hadn’t shared bitter words earlier but Mole wasn’t sure he could buy into this false sense of ease they were both locked in.

 

Mole certainly wasn’t about to go and intentionally disrupt the delicate peace between the two though, and he stood by silently while Gentleman pulled out and organized a number of different files and papers that looked like they had been tucked away for a while now. Hacker wasn’t even watching, instead staring down at his phone, tapping his thumbs against the screen so fast that Mole couldn’t even begin to hope to follow. The only change in his behavior for a good five minutes or so was when the man would purse his lips and blow a dangerously large bubble with the gum that he had popped into his mouth just before showing up at Gentleman’s door.

 

Mole wouldn’t admit it, but it was oddly mesmerizing to watch.

 

When Gentleman was finished sorting and ready to begin elaborating on just what he wanted the two of them to do on their next job, Mole took notice and pried his eyes away from Hacker to look up at his uncle straight away. Hacker didn’t, and only looked up from what he was doing with an arched brow after Gentleman rather pointedly cleared his throat to get his attention focused on him.

 

“…Should I wait for you, Hacker?” Gentleman asked, crossing his arms across his chest, and the only response he got was Hacker staring at him for a few moments before popping his gum at the older man and slipping his phone into his jean pocket with a small sigh, motioning for Gentleman to go on.

 

That was the moment Mole began to regret tossing the wine over the balcony instead of finishing the bottle like he had wanted to.

 

“…Gentleman has big plans?” Mole asked slowly, hoping to prompt Gentleman into starting this little meeting he had called, if only to hopefully get them all out of the same room faster.

 

“museumseasonpass” Hacker said, leaning back against the Room’s desk and tucking his hands away in his hoodie’s pocket as he spoke.

 

Gentleman gave a small nod, and he held out a couple of papers to the two of them, which Mole grabbed and held down for Hacker to look at with him. They were pictures of a crime scene, a messy one from the looks of it, and it only took Mole a few seconds to realize he was looking at police photos of evidence. Evidence that Gentleman undoubtedly wanted taken care of.

 

“I had quite a bit of work last month, and unfortunately sometimes a job turns sour and you end up leaving a bigger mess than you’re ready to handle.” Gentleman said. “I can’t leave Monaco until I have someone go back and take care of this particular mess though, and I know that if I send the two of you, you’ll get the job done.”

 

Hacker gave a little laugh, and after he was done looking over the pictures that Mole held in his hand, he looked up at Gentleman with an amused grin, jabbing his thumb towards the bedroom door. “cleanersoutthere”

 

“Of course I would rather send our _actual_ cleaner on a job like this,” Gentleman started, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he spoke. “Unfortunately, like we discussed earlier, he ended up shot this evening because _you_ were too busy messing around to do your job to it’s fullest. So now the job falls to your two instead.”

 

“waytobuildusup...” Hacker mumbled, the grin fading from his face as quick as it had appeared, and Mole stepped forwards to hand the pictures back to Gentleman who tucked them away safely in his folders once again. “nothardjob”

 

“No, it’s not, which is why I’m _only_ sending the two of you. There’s no use in risking sending the others and having them muck it up somehow. I need this to be a clean job, no mistakes, no room for error...” Gentleman said, his eyes moving from Mole to Hacker, narrowing as he stared him down. His gaze was intense, making Hacker nearly squirm in his spot as he stared back at the older man. “None of what happened today. Unlike Lookout, I’m not asking for miracle workers. I’m just asking for the best that Monaco has to offer, and if you’re no longer that, then I’ll just have to-” He started, but Hacker quickly cut him off, much to both his and Mole’s surprise.

 

“iamthebest” Hacker growled, standing up straight and balling his fists inside his hoodie’s pockets. “dropthethreatsalready”

 

“You’ve never worked well without them hanging over your head though, Hacker.” Gentleman said. Then he took a few slow, menacing steps towards Hacker, watching as the man seemed to shrink just a little in his shadow. Mole simply stood off to the side, watching with an uneasy nervousness settling in the pit of his stomach as their earlier conversation began to resurface, just like he knew it would. “...I may have pulled you from that hell hole you were rotting in, but you’re still far from having my respect again...”

 

“ineverhadit” Hacker muttered. “you _tricked_ me _screwed_ me”

 

“And I have given you not a second, but a _third_ chance at a real life here! Do not make me regret my choice, because I will tell you that you _are_ replaceable, and I am not so far above changing my mind on keeping you around.”

 

Something about Gentleman’s words gave Mole a bit of a sick feeling, and a thought ran through his mind as he recalled something that Hacker had said to him earlier that very same day.

 

‘ _wantedtodogood_ ’ He’d said. ‘ _maybebekeptaroundthistime..._ ’

 

There it was, why Hacker seemed so impossibly loyal to a Gentleman when hatred and resentment for him seemed to boil just under the surface. _Fear_. Not of Gentleman necessarily, but where he would end back up if the man decided he was done putting up with him, if he stopped seeing him as more _valuable_ to keep around than a risk.

 

That had always been the case though. From the very first moments Hacker had been speaking with them, it had been just a made struggle for Hacker to prove his worth to a man who essentially held his life in his hands now. At least until they got out of Monaco anyway. Hacker had nowhere else he could go, nobody in the entire world he could turn to for help in getting out of the shitty situation he was in. The only way Hacker could go was up, but only if Gentleman helped him, and Hacker was well aware of that. Along with the fear there was almost a ravenous desire in Hacker to see how high Gentleman could build him up if he managed to get on the man’s good side…

 

“Hacker knows,” Mole all but blurted out from where he had been only watching from the side. Both Gentleman and Hacker looked over at him, and when they didn’t say anything, he slowly continued. “...Hacker knows what’s at stake, work hard to make Gentleman happy… Hacker rusty, just escaped, Gentleman should give time.”

 

Gentleman stared at Mole for a few moments, eyes locked on him like he was trying to stare into his own nephew’s damn soul, and Mole stood stalk still the entire time, not about to take back what he had said. Then Gentleman’s eyes darted over to Hacker for half a second who was nervously grinding his gum between his teeth and picking at a small piece of it that had gotten stuck on his lip, and Gentleman let out a slow sigh through his nostrils before shaking his head and turning back towards the bed.

 

“I must say, Mole,” Gentleman started. “I miss the days when you couldn’t trust Hacker to do so much as walk behind you without stabbing you in the back.”

 

“Hacker save Mole’s life.” Mole said simply. “Hacker work together with Dirty Criminals despite past. Hacker not turn on Gentleman. Hacker _deserves_ trust.” He said, eyes locked tight on Gentleman, because something inside him couldn’t bring himself to some much as look over at the man he was defending. He could feel Hacker staring holes into him off to the side though, and it made his skin itch in an uncomfortable way.

 

“…Perhaps that if nothing else...” Gentleman said with a small huff. “There is a very large difference between trust and respect though, and he has yet to earn any respect from me by any standard.”

 

“neversaidiwantedany” Hacker said with a shrug, and in that moment Mole wanted nothing more than to choke the life out of the idiot who couldn’t seem to shut his big mouth for five seconds and let an argument die.

 

Luckily for them, Gentleman didn’t seem to be interested in fighting with Hacker anymore, not when he had the bigger issue of planning just how he was going to send these two in to clean up after his own mess. He motioned for the two to come close, and as they did he pulled a large folded up blueprint that he seemed to have left tucked away since his last trip to the museum, and it still had all it’s notes, markings, warnings and various paths that one could take to get through the security the building had in place. Honestly Mole had no idea who Gentleman had been working with on this particular job, they hadn’t been together at this time, but it was easy to see how things could have gone bad real fast.

 

“lockeddowntight” Hacker said lowly, his eyes wide as he looked over just how many places had been marked for different types of laser trip wires. “worsethansecuritech...”

 

“ _Oui_ , and I managed to get the job done without anyone to shut down all the technology in our way like you can. I imagine it’ll be far easier for you and Mole to get inside than it was for myself.” Gentleman said.

 

“whynotcomealong” Hacker asked, glancing up at Gentleman with a raised brow, before the older man let out an amused scoff and shook his head at Hacker’s words.

 

“Because, _Mon Chien_ , you should never return to the scene of a crime if you don’t have to.” Gentleman said.

 

“cleanersjob” Hacker said, a sheepish grin spreading on his face as he watched the frustration begin to once again build up in Gentleman.

 

“Exactly, and he’s done good work for me, but obviously he’s down for the count. Still, I have you two working for me, so there’s no need for me to return to the museum to clean up the remnants of a messy job.” Gentleman said, before pointing his finger down to a lower part of the map.

 

“Now, the easiest way to get into the building is actually through a cave system underneath, though it’s still heavily guarded, so we’re going to send you in on boat...”

 

* * *

 

It was a simple enough plan, and Gentleman was right. Hacker and Mole would be able to handle it well enough on their own, so sending the other less dependable thieves that they hadn’t been working with as long wasn’t necessary. Mole always preferred smaller jobs that didn’t require much cooperation with a large number of people anyway. Less people, less risk. Sometimes that meant less reward as well, but this job wasn’t about the payout, it was about erasing their trail.

 

After being informed of the basic plan and the easiest paths that they could take through the caves and the building once they got there, Hacker and Mole had been dismissed, with Gentleman informing them that there were a few small details that he needed to hash out before they could commence with the plain that they had laid out. Namely finding the two a boat that they could used to sneak onto the shore of the cave with. It would take a few days at the very least, so that gave the two a while to simply relax after their trip through Securitech.

 

While the crew was more than capable of buckling down and working together when they needed to get a job done, it didn’t exactly mean that they were particularly friendly with one another after their tasks were done. Mole often saw Lookout and Locksmith speaking quietly to each other in a rather familiar fashion, but he had learned not too long after meeting them that they had apparently known and worked with each other before they landed themselves behind bars. The Pickpocket would also share a few words with Locksmith when he emerged from his room, but the conversations between the two always seemed rather short lived and terse on Pickpocket’s part, like he was uncomfortable being out and socializing with anyone other than his monkey.

 

Mole had only ever seen Cleaner talk with one person before, and that had been his uncle, just before they’d made their way into the hospital to extract Hacker. Mole hadn’t been close enough to hear what had actually been said between the two, but he had seen the usually silent man’s lips moving and Gentleman had been listening rather intently to Cleaner had to say. What the two discussed was never brought up with the others, and honestly Mole wasn’t sure he really wanted to know anyway.

 

And Hacker… well, since he’d arrived he’d been surprisingly unsocial with the rest of the group. It was a weird mixture of him not particularly liking the people he did know, and not giving enough of a fuck about the rest of them to really bother with talking to them for more than a few seconds at a time. On missions, when silence was what really mattered, they had trouble getting the guy to shut up, but during the days between their heists it was rare to see him out of his room.

 

Mole could remember one day that Locksmith had been sent to remind Hacker to eat something, and the man had come back empty handed and rather disappointed that Hacker had all but told him to fuck off out of his room, despite the fact that it had belonged to Locksmith in the first place before he had arrived. When Hacker _did_ finally come out for food, the group had watched as the man dug around in the fridge for a moment before leaving with a mouthful of bread, meat, and cheese, each of which he had stuffed in individually.

 

The man was as much of a disaster on his off days as he was on the job…

 

Really Mole didn’t have much of a problem with the fact that most of the crew didn’t seem to be up for a whole lot of talking and getting to know each other. Nobody had so much as asked for a name, not wanting to take the risk of getting too personal with each other before they all, inevitably, split up. Nobody here really wanted to get to know Mole any further than they already had, and Mole didn’t feel like trying to make any new friends with Dirty Criminals he would only end up stabbing in the back for his Uncle’s sake. It was just the way things went in this business, and they all knew it.

 

Still, that did make it all the stranger when a laptop was dropped down beside Mole as he sat on the couch out in the main lobby, trying to focus on whatever old movie was playing to relax enough to sleep after a stressful day. He looked down at it, and then up in time to see Hacker vault himself over the back of the couch, landing next to it with a small huff. Mole instinctively began to scoot over, not liking the fact that he was bumping elbows with the smaller man, and Hacker grabbed his laptop and opened it up.

 

“youwannalearnright” Hacker asked, not looking up at Mole as he typed his password in, his fingers flying over the keys faster than Mole could even think.

 

“...What?” Mole asked, his brows knitting together in confusion.

 

“hackingyouaskedaboutit” Hacker said, pointing a finger down at his screen before he clicked a few files, pulling up a program that had Mole feeling lost and confused before it could even finish loading entirely. “earliertoday”

 

“Mole not want to know about hacking.” Mole said simply, turning his eyes back towards the front. He _had_ asked about it, but that had been a simple moment of curiosity that Hacker had blown off rather callously. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best time to be asking questions about what it was exactly that Hacker did for the group, but that had been hours ago, and Mold didn’t really know if he wanted to actually sit around and listen to Hacker ramble on about things he didn’t understand at speeds he couldn’t comprehend.

 

“seenyoudoit” Hacker said with a shrug. “notbadamateur”

 

“Mole not meant to hack. Mole just does what Mole is told, Mole not understand programs, just put them in the computers and security goes down.” Mole said, moving farther away from Hacker by leaning himself up against the couch’s arm rest as he spoke, but if Hacker noticed he didn’t seem to care.

 

“couldunderstandcouldlearn” Hacker said lowly. “masterskillfornextjob”

 

“Mole said Mole not want to learn.” Mole grumbled, and thankfully for him, Hacker went quiet after that, so only the movie and his rapid typing could be heard.

 

There was no way in hell that Mole could actually turn his attention back to the movie he had been trying to watch, not with Hacker staying at his side instead of slinking back to his room to hide away for the rest of the night like he had thought he would. He knew Hacker wasn’t an idiot; he probably got the hint that Mole didn’t particularly want him there but chose to ignore it. Mole wasn’t exactly sure why though, it wasn’t like he was the top pick of thieves in the building to buddy up to if the man was feeling lonely.

 

_Lonely_ … That was a thought that Mole hadn’t actually considered before. They’d gone and yanked Hacker from his asylum cell after a few years of being cut off from the rest of the world. He’d likely only communicated with the doctors trying to treat him, nobody he could even begin to call his friend, and now that he was free, he seemed almost more isolated than before. It was clear Hacker had no real desire to go back to his own personal prison, but he didn’t seem quite adjusted to being out in the world yet either…

 

Mole found his eyes locked on Hacker, looking him over from head to toe as the movie went on unnoticed. Hacker had long since kicked his shoes off and changed into a pair of plain, dark pajama pants for comfort while choosing to stay in his somewhat blood stained hoodie and whatever T-shirt he had on underneath that day. He was scrawny. Not unhealthily so, he’d always been about this size if Mole remembered correctly, and he knew Hacker had more muscle than it seemed hidden away under his hoodie. It just reminded him of Hacker’s less than stellar track record of taking care of himself and eating regularly like the rest of the group did. He’d always gotten so caught up in his work, or whatever it was he did while tucked away in his rooms for hours a day, that he’d go an entire day without eating if left to his own devices.

 

That… Wasn’t really any concern of Mole’s though. If the man couldn’t handle paying attention to the time enough to eat, that was his own damn fault.

 

Hacker did eventually look up from his laptop to glance over at Mole and see what he was doing, only to do a double take when he noticed that Mole was staring at him. He made a face, and shifted around in his seat, feeling as though Mole were burning holes into his skin just by watching him so intently. “takeapicturebuddy” He muttered, and Mole blinked slowly, but he frowned and kept his gaze locked on the other man.

 

“What is Hacker doing?” Mole asked, and for a moment Hacker had to wonder if Mole had gone and changed his mind once again on wanting to hear about what it was he did for the group, or if he was just making some kind of a joke. The look on Mole’s face made Hacker kinda suspect that maybe that wasn’t the case though.

 

“working” Hacker said with a shrug, not sure what else he should say, but Mole shook his head and waved that answer off.

 

“Not what Mole meant. What Hacker doing here with Mole?” Mole asked.

 

Hacker’s whole posture seemed to shift in discomfort at the question, and Mole could only watch as he gave a more halfhearted shrug this time and turned his gaze back to the computer in his lap. Hacker lowered his head, and his hood obscured all of his face except the very tip of his nose from view.

 

“dontownthecouch” Hacker said after a moment of contemplation. “amibotheringyou” He asked.

 

Mole took a moment to respond to that, because really he wasn’t to sure himself what he wanted to say. _Yes_ , he was, but that probably wasn’t going to get him the answers he wanted out of Hacker.

 

“No,” Mole said after a few tense moments between the two, and he shifted in his spot as he glanced back towards the TV, but it just couldn’t keep his gaze right then, and he found his eyes locked with Hacker’s despite his best effort. The smaller man honestly seemed just as uncomfortable with this as he was. “Mole just not understand why Hacker spends time with people Hacker hates...”

 

“whosaidihateyou” Hacker asked with a small snort, but Mole didn’t really find the situation funny at all, and he let out a short sigh through his nose.

 

“Hacker hates Gentleman. Mole is loyal to Gentleman.” Mole explained. “Hacker should hate Mole too, not sit on couch beside.”

 

“dontthinkyourawful” Hacker admitted, turning just a little to face Mole, almost looking a little surprised under his hood that Mole would think he hated him. Sure they didn’t get along very well and Hacker was a little too good at getting under the larger man’s skin, to rile him up and see his face turn red with embarrassment and anger, but to go so far as to say he _hated_ the man was just wrong. “neverdidmewrong” He said. “notyouruncleskeeper”

 

Those words twisted Mole’s gut in an uncomfortable way, made his skin itch and he felt like running right then, ending the conversation and simply giving in to waiting for the inevitable explosion of negative feelings and hostile intentions that he felt were coming to all of them sooner or later. That’s what he had done the first time working with Hacker. Sure, he couldn’t have stopped his uncle from what he did if he had tried, but he _didn’t_ try, and he’d merely turned a blind eye as Hacker had been arrested and was dragged kicking and screaming into custody. He’d only learned later that Hacker hadn’t ended up in prison, but in a rather intense mental ward for ‘heavy treatment’.

 

They hadn’t been fond of each other in the slightest back then, and Mole wasn’t entirely sure he could say anything had changed between them now, but a betrayal of ignorance was just as much of a knife in the back as what Gentleman had tricked him into doing, right? Hacker clearly didn’t seem to think of it that way. Or did he just not know?

 

“youhadmyback” Hacker said, pointing towards Gentleman’s room, and Mole blinked slowly, letting the words wash over him. “didnthaveto”

 

“...Gentleman being unreasonable. Expects too much from Small Criminal too fast. Mole had to step in.” Mole explained lowly, and it was the truth, but Mole got the feeling that Hacker didn’t quite see it the same way as he did.

 

“savedmefromnastyguards” Hacker added, a small smile on his face as he pointed this out. “putthosemusclestogooduse”

 

“Shouldn’t have had to.” Mole said, and the words wiped the smile right off of Hacker’s face because he knew Mole was right. He had been the one to let things get out of hand when it should have been such a simple job, and that’s why he had been so harshly scolded that evening.

 

“right...” Hacker trailed off, tapping his fingers against his laptop as if nervous for a second as he seemed to piece together what else he wanted to say, before he reached up into his hood and rubbed at the back of his neck. “wantedtossaysorrytooactually” Hacker said with a bit of a sheepish tone in his voice. “forearlier”

 

“Hacker means for almost jeopardizing mission?” Mole asked.

 

“dontrubitindick” Hacker said, and one of his hands twitched for half a second, almost seeming to move closer to Mole like he wanted to smack his arm, or give him a playful shove. They weren’t there though, there wasn’t anything near that level of camaraderie or friendliness between the two of them, so he quickly pulled his hands back to himself and he wrung them together as he spoke. “shakingofftherust” He said, but there was a sense of eagerness in his voice now, almost a certain giddiness that was hard to miss, even with how excitable Hacker could be at times.

 

“Hacker _will_ do better then?” Mole asked, a quizzical look on his face as he studied Hacker.

 

“ofcourse” Hacker said with a nod. “gottaimpressgentleman”

 

There it was again. They were said with hope and even a bit of pride, but they were poisonous words that Mole had swore he had heard before, and not just from Hacker in the short time they had been together again. Not just from Hacker, period. People so often seemed to either despise Gentleman with a passion, or almost worship the man for the things he was capable of doing and the crimes he was able to get away with. More often than not it was the people who truly hated the man that tended to escape encounters with him alive and well, rather than letting his uncle walk all over them until they couldn’t take it anymore.

 

For a moment Mole opened his mouth to say something, almost wanting to encourage Hacker not to bend so easily to his uncle, to not let the man control him. His jaw snapped shut almost immediately after though, because he knew they would be useless words. Gentleman was not someone who would go back on his word, and Mole knew for a fact that if Hacker didn’t turn his act around real fast, Gentleman would be more than able to stage a break _in_ to drop Hacker back in the asylum and leave him there for this good time.

 

As much as they didn’t get along, Mole knew he didn’t want to see Hacker end up with an awful fate like that. Not again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I'm rusty.


End file.
